Author Fighters: The Hounds of Winter
by Phoenix of the Darkness
Summary: X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness argue a lot. An attempt to make them work together leads to the rise of a new group of twelve powerful villains. Rate T for Violence and Language.
1. Prologue

_A/N: During November of last year, I contacted fellow Author Fighter X Prodigy with a story idea. It was insane, and crack, so he loved it of course. It was only when he had the idea to add a drop of darkness to this story that the thoughts of it became less humorous and more black, like a heart tainted by shadows. It only spreads, and never backs down. This is Author Fighters: The Hounds of Winter._

**Prologue: The Imprisoned**

"_Lean on me/when you're not strong/and I'll be your friend./I'll help you carry on/for it won't be long/till I'm gonna need/somebody to lean on."  
-Bill Withers, "Lean On Me"_

_"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death."  
-Coco Chanel _

* * *

Infinite darkness.

She knelt on the ground, leaning over. Brown hair hung a curtain over her face. Shackles bound her wrists and ankles, chains holding her tight to the incorporeal ground. Her expression was peaceful.

"It's been a while now, so I gotta ask. How long, just how long, do you think you can keep me here?"

She received no answer. "My, my, getting irritated, are we? How immature."

A voice echoed through the darkness. It came from all directions, and yet she would say that it came from the depths of her own mind.

_"Forever. That's how long."_

She closed her eyes, considering the answer. "You're delusional," she concluded. "See, it doesn't matter how many chains bind me. How this prison appears to my eyes. How much you want me to stay here. Just let me gather my strength, and soon enough, I'll be able to free myself."

_"Good luck with that."_

The chains rattled as she stood. They were only just long enough. She cast her sight across the black, and sighed. She really didn't care what her jailer said. Her day was coming, and soon enough, the shackles would fall away.

She smiled, and her eyes shone.


	2. Goddess Tempts Fate

_A/N: I'm aware it's been five months since I last updated. Anybody decides to point that out, I will throw a book at their head._

_Oh...and I know that the second half of this chapter is really rushed and really not very good. I just had to break my writer's block, and the only way I could was by just getting through this chapter, so hopefully updates will come a little sooner. Worst case scenario: summer break before I get around to it, but I think I'll be able to write the next chapter a lot more easily._

_Disclaimer: I do not own X Prodigy, Mistress of Dawn, AdventChild, Dark Guitar Goddess, The White Witch (AKA Jadis), Tai Lung, the Nostalgia Critic, or the youth and the old man at the end of the chapter._

* * *

**Chapter 1: Goddess Tempts Fate**

"What's with all the boxes?"

"...Advent offered me twenty bucks to move his collection of Naruto merch downstairs. Didn't know he had so much."

"Sorry, wish I could do something to help."

"Yeah, well-" As Dawn started walking away, a realization came to X Prodigy. "Hey! Help me with this!"

"What? No way, I've got better things to do."

X made a very rude gesture at Dawn's back, walking backwards towards the stairs. As he turned around, he didn't bother to look down, only to trip on a PS3 controller somebody had left at the top step.

_Thunk! Bump! CRASH!_

"I'll kill whoever did that..."

Phoenix, who was interestingly enough playing the PS3, turned around at the noise. "Oh my God, are you hurt, X?" she asked in concern.

He grunted as he started pushing himself up. "I don't think so..."

Phoenix narrowed her brow, bent down, picked up her shoe, and chucked it at X's masked head. "Now are you hurt?"

A vein pulsed in X's forehead. "No."

"Damn it!" She went back to her game, and began to swear profusely when Faith continued failing to jump as she wished.

"_Kamikorosu_," X muttered.

"What's that mean?" asked Dark Guitar Goddess, Phoenix's little sister, who had been quite vacant for the past three minutes.

"It means he intends to bite me to death," Phoenix said, without taking her eyes off the screen. "X, I'm very sorry to say that that just doesn't sound threatening coming from you."

A few moments later, the city of the game became as a polar bear in a snowstorm. "What...what?" Phoenix looked up, and X was swirling the Playstation's power chord with one hand. "I was this close to the checkpoint! Now I have to go through that stupid level all the way through again!"

"Maybe you'll remember that the next time you feel like throwing one of your stinking shoes at somebody." Speaking of which, he threw it back to her. With her powerful reflexes honed from years of playing videogames, Phoenix managed to fumble it. She picked it out of her lap with two fingers and threw it aside.

"Hey, that's my shoe!" Goddess exclaimed, snatching it up.

X pulled out Dusk and fired. The bullet just barely scratched the edge of the shoe, while Goddess had dropped the shoe and jumped to the ceiling.

"Nice aim, Green Arrow," Phoenix said sarcastically.

"Could've sworn it moved on its own..."

The voice of Advent Child floated up from the top of the steps. "X, why are all of my knives and bobbleheads of Jashin laying all the way down the stairs? Do you need Fluffy to teach you a lesson?" There was the distinct _poof _sound of a jutsu being used, followed by the growl of a bloodthirsty hyena.

"Be right there." He pointed Dusk at Phoenix for emphasis. "I trip over any game controller again, it's on your head." Phoenix made a face.

X ignored her, and as he went back up the stairs, said very loudly. "Hey Advent, you can still feel pain, right?"

Bullets were fired, and there came the sound of blood splattering across a wall.

"Honestly, between Advent's love of violence, X's ability to perform violent acts, and your short temper, it's a wonder anybody is able to get through breakfast intact," Goddess said in wonder. "Lemme play." She plugged the game back in, tugged the controller away, and within moments had managed to jump off of a building. "Darn."

"You're really bad at this game."

"Your face is bad at this game!" Goddess exclaimed, giggling at her own joke. "Anyways, the way you play videogames, the day you beat this game is the same day that The Nostalgia Critic, Tai Lung, and the White Witch walk across the middle of the desert plotting evil things."

"...Double-G, I know that back home it's different, but here, you don't say things like that. Bad stuff usually follows."

"So...wait, bad stuff follows me saying that you're bad at videogames?" Goddess asked in bewilderment.

"What? No, not that!"

Goddess thought about what she had said again. "Oh, you mean that bad stuff follows me saying that the Nostalgia Critic, Tai Lung, and the White Witch are going to walk across the desert plotting evil things?"

"Shut up!"

* * *

Coincidentally, The Nostalgia Critic, Tai Lung, and the White Witch _were_ in fact walking across the desert, though only the White Witch was plotting evil things. Meanwhile, the Nostalgia Critic was making vague comments which broke the fourth wall, as Tai Lung leered at him when not silently stewing in the heat. Snow Leopards were not built for hot environments.

"Filler, filler, filler, get on with it," said the Critic.

Suddenly and inexplicably, a gust of wind blew across the ground, blowing sand in the Critic's face.

The Witch barely registered any of it, her mind busy controlling her magical touch now spread across the face of the desert, searching for the faintest sign of what she was looking for.

She brushed something, a something that in any other circumstance she would have ignored it. But here, she released her Touch from everything else, focusing entirely upon it. Within moments, it was very clear. A collection of dark power in the midst of this unending nothingness.

"Stop," she told Tai Lung and the Nostalgia Critic. She took three more steps herself, before reaching into her sleeve. From it, she drew out a long, thin wand that had the appearance of being made entirely of ice.

It must have not been very cold, or perhaps, she was so cold-hearted herself that the ice felt like a burning branch tucked between her first two fingers and thumb. Regardless, she loved the feeling of it back in her hand, where it belonged.

Jadis's, the White Witch's, homeworld of Narnia was once her Queendom, ruled by her with wand in hand for a hundred years, always winter, but never Christmas. Her power came through her magical prowess, and the ability to keep fear and darkness in the hearts of all of those who lived in Narnia with her winter. Though her powers had been diminished after being returned to the world of the living, she was still a force to be reckoned with.

The Witch raised her wand ever so slightly, and the ground shook all about them. The Critic looked nervous, and Tai Lung looked somewhat disconcerted, but Jadis ignored it completely, as a hundred feet from them, pillars of stone began to rise out of the desert, interrupting the line of the horizon. They rose to become a hundred feet tall at their highest, coming into new shapes. It looked like a demonic castle, the stones becoming the color of clay, and shadows were cast across the desert.

The last touch came when, in the very front, a shape jutted out from the face of the cliff-castle. Though there were no colors to it, it was easy enough to see what it was. An eye, keeping watch over the decade since its creation.

The wand vanished back into the folds of her clothing, and the unlikely party resumed its course. With a flick of her hand, the front door fell open, sand and pebbles falling from what passed for hinges as it moved.

"My God, who _built_ this thing! You might as well just shout at the top of your lungs, 'hey everybody! Guess what? _I'm the villain of this fan-ficti__on!"_

The Nostalgia Critic continued to criticize every possible aspect of the fortress, anything that looked like a film, literary, or videogame stereotype, and yelled in rage at so-called ripoffs. The Critic wasn't the best villain—he was rarely ever a villain, barring a failed takeover of a micro-nation in Nevada. Usually, he reviewed horrible nostalgic movies on his website along with a dozen other geeks. However, one lonely Sunday afternoon, he was bored, and there was nothing on T.V. Thus why he was currently in a stone fortress in the middle of the desert in the unlikely party of himself, the White Witch, and Tai Lung.

Speaking of which, the Critic kept walking even when his companions had stopped, and succeed in walking straight into a wall.

Jadis pushed the Critic back carelessly to better examine the wall. Shapes and old letters were carved into the sandstone in a circular array. "After so long, finally," said the White Witch. "Your turn, _cat_."

Tai Lung snarled in irritation. A cat he may have been, but he was also the greatest (or at least, second-greatest) master of Kung Fu in his home. The Valley of Peace was the birthplace of Kung Fu, and there he had trained all his life to become the Dragon Warrior. After getting turned down by the grand master, he attacked the Valley of Peace, and was locked away in a prison for twenty long years. Even when he escaped, he was defeated by the now-Dragon Warrior: a '_big, fat panda_' named Po, and turned to dust. The White Witch had restored him with the promise that, if Tai Lung worked with her, he would be able to gain even greater power, to humiliate Po as the panda had done to him.

Tai Lung's claws sprang out. Jadis wouldn't even need Tai Lung if she had her stone knife (shattered in the same battle which had killed her), but even if she had it, she disliked doing dirty work.

"Suddenly I've got a really bad feeling about this," the Nostalgia Critic muttered, nervously adjusting his tie. Then: "GACK!" Cartoony blood covered Tai Lung's claws, for he had just sliced through the Critic's chest. The Critic glanced down at himself.

"Should've know, it would end up like this," he grunted. He waved painfully to the readers. "Oh well, I'll be back by next Tuesday." His eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed to the ground.

The White Witch spat. "Idiot." Tai Lung went to the array on the wall, and scraped against it a claw coated in human blood—for he was obviously not human, and while Jadis may have appeared as such, she had not a drop of human blood in her veins.

White light began to shine through the runes at the trigger of human blood. But before the light could shine too brightly, it began to darken, turn violet, and crimson, and black. Light turned to flames dancing across the wall, the runes became lines and crawled over the sandstone, until the face of a clock formed in the wall. Jadis reached out, and lightly touched the clock. Instantly, the hands moved from their position at high noon—or midnight—to speed around the face of the clock, faster and faster until hour and minute were only a blur.

Neither knew it, but the clock ran to count out twelve full years, before stopping at the current time: 7:23 P.M.

The entire face of the wall glowed, and melted away. The dark flames turned to embers, then smoke.

A pleased smiled spread across the face of the White Witch, at the sight of the two figures who now stood just beyond where the wall had been. A youth, and an old man.

"I had hoped this road would not be necessary," said the old man, clenching his fist in front of his chest. "No matter." His eyes went from the White Witch, to Tai Lung, to the Critic, still bleeding on the floor. "Hmph."

The old man smiled a cruel smile. His golden eyes flashed. "Tell me, Jadis, what has happened in my absence?"

* * *

_A/N: Wow...kind of a mood whiplash, I know._

_By the way, that videogame my insert was playing? Mirror's Edge. And I _have_ beaten it since writing that part!_

_I'm going to try and give those little summaries in-text of who villains are, but chances are, they won't be very clear. Not my fault. If you want to learn more about The White Witch AKA Jadis, go read The Chronicles of Narnia. If you want to learn more about Tai Lung, go watch Kung Fu Panda. If you want to learn more about the Nostalgia Critic, go watch some of his videos. M'kay?_

_Reviews are always appreciated! As long as they aren't about how I haven't updated in 5 months!_


	3. People Make Pop Culture References

_A/N: Okay, finally! This chapter is only okay, I think. Ending is kinda cheesy, please forgive me._

_All self-inserts belong to their respective owners._

**Chapter 2: People Make Pop Culture References**

"Idiot!"

"Shorty!"

"Ginger!"

"Freak!"

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"A nutjob who fights like a cow!"

"Go fall in a ditch!"

"Drop dead!"

"You first!"

Neither X nor Phoenix knew nor did they care that Ross had started massaging his temples. "How long can they keep going like this?" he muttered.

"Considering it's been two weeks, and they don't seem tired of it yet," TL said, "probably a while longer. Your move, Loony." Lunatic considered the chess board carefully, before moving his king up a space. TL moved one of his knights. "Checkmate." Lunatic threw the chessboard into the air, and stormed off.

"You're nothing but a giant creep!" Phoenix snapped.

"Normally, at this point I'd say you were as dumb as a rock," X said, "but that would be an insult to rocks!"

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Oh, you are less original than Christopher Paolini, you stole that line from Scrubs!"

_What? When did she start watching Scrubs?_ X silently narrated to himself. He shook his head. _Calm down, X, you can bounce back from this!_ "Screw you!"

"Screw you!"

"Screw you a thousand times!"

"Screw you times infinity!"

"I've had enough of this," said DarkPaladinmon, calmly taking his scepter in hand.

X drew both of his pistols and pulled back the hammers. "The first thing I'll do after I kill you is tear off that big mouth!"

"You suck!" Phoenix exclaimed, pointing the tip of her keyblade at his face.

DP's scepter glowed violet. "_Bind._"

Taken by surprise, Phoenix and X were suddenly yanked away from each other and into opposite walls. Rings of white energy formed around each of their wrists and ankles, binding both to their respective walls.

"I don't know why you two are arguing," DP said. "Nor do I care why. However, given that you're disturbing the peace in the HQ with your fighting—"

From upstairs, Wildrook shouted out "I HAVEN'T SLEPT IN THREE DAYS!"

"I'm getting a migraine over here," Ross grunted.

"Even _I'm_ getting annoyed by it, and I'm one of the most annoying people here!" Goddess exclaimed.

"I rest my case," DP said definitively. "So here's the deal: the two of you can follow my instructions, and learn to work together on a mission."

"What's the other option?" X said, just barely holding back his anger.

The front of DP's helm cast a shadow over his eyes. "You're both out."

The room suddenly went silent.

Phoenix's face had suddenly turned very pale. "Out? You m-mean, 'Out' out?"

"Don't care what you do, or where you go," DP said quietly. "But I'd never want to see either of your faces ever again. Or…" He looked back up. "...you can take the first option."

DP wasn't joking; threatening to kick somebody out of the Author Fighters was the most serious punishment. Beyond rare to happen, but it wasn't unknown. Fighting constantly, never quitting even when DP said to—it wouldn't be the first time.

"First option," Phoenix said instantly.

"No kidding," X added.

DP waved his hand through the air, and their binds vanished. "Good answer."

_Holy crap, DP-mon is _scary _when he's pissed off,_ Phoenix thought.

"Alright, then, first, a question: Phoenix, you can't see Hollows, right?"

"…No…" _I already don't like where this is going._

"Perfect. X, drop your weapons." The Hollow Devil hesitantly removed his massive longsword, and set down Dawn and Dusk on a table. "Mm-hm." X pulled a few knives out of his sleeves. "Mm-hm." From somewhere in the depths of his coat, X retrieved a firecracker, and set it down.

"Happy?"

"I'm satisfied."

_Strike that—I _really_ don't like where this is going._

"There's a Hollow of decent strength out by the harbor," DP said, crossing his arms over his chest. "As far as we know, it hasn't killed anyone—yet. The two of you are to head down there, find it, and destroy it before somebody dies. Since X doesn't have any way of fighting, and Phoenix can't see Hollows…"

"Gonna have to communicate to destroy it," X muttered. "Great…"

"And I get to put my neck on the line, nice plan, DP," Phoenix said sarcastically. "How do I know he won't get me killed?"

"You'll just have to trust him," DP said. "And X, don't forget; if Phoenix dies, the Hollow will probably go after _you_ next."

"You're really kinda sadistic, you know that Boss Wiz?" TL said nonchalantly. He was quickly electrocuted for his troubles.

**HOWHOWHOW**

_**Los Angeles Harbor, 10:38 P.M.**_

Phoenix had her keyblade, the Flicker of Hope, resting on her shoulder, while the other hand fiddled with the Diamondsteel Alchemy Ring strung around her neck. X had his hands in his pockets, while he looked all around for the Hollow they were hunting.

"With how much you mess with that ring you'd think the string would have fallen apart by now," X muttered. "It's been 3-and-a-half months now, besides; how hard is it to just let go?"

Phoenix ground her teeth together. "Just keep an eye out for that Hollow, will ya?"

X's eyes widened as he looked behind him. "Oh my God, down!" He pushed Phoenix away, right into a pile of garbage. "Oh, wait, nevermind, that was a dog."

Phoenix snapped back upwards. "What the hell was that for?"

"I thought it'd be funny," X said with a shrug.

A blood vessel pulsed in Phoenix's forehead. "I hate you!"

"Hey Phoenix, what has two thumbs and doesn't give a shit?" X held his hands up, stuck his thumbs out, and pointed at himself. "This guy!"

"Ugh." Phoenix shook her head. _God…wonder if I could use the Tracking Stone to try and find the Hollow on my own…even if I can't see it, would I still be able to hear it?_ She started digging through her pockets, looking for a small stone carrying the image of an eye.

X spat. _Damn that bastard DP, shouldn't have to be out here babysitting. It's not my fault Phoenix is some immature, self-centered, emotional, mentally-disturbed—_

"_Kikikiki…girly-girl and her lovely, out for a walk on the wrong side of town~_"

X stopped dead in his tracks. He glanced over his shoulder. "Shit, that's a really big dog…"

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again," Phoenix said, not even turning around.

"Phoenix…"

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid or something, X?"

"Well…yeah, but that's beside the point." Phoenix sighed, and turned around just in time to see X drop to the ground. A half-moment later, something big and _heavy_ hit her in the chest. The breath was knocked out of her lungs as she went flying backwards. Her gauntlet glowed, and her descent slowed just enough to let flip over and land on her feet, skidding back along the ground.

Phoenix took her keyblade in both hands, listening closely for the surroundings being rustled, feet hitting the ground. _Unless it floats…_

"Right!"

Phoenix swept Flicker of Hope up her side, and hit nothing but air. The Hollow came at her again, and Phoenix got winged. "I'm assuming you meant dodge?"

"Yeah."

"Of course."

"What's it doing now?"

X paused. "Okay, swipe to your left when I tell you." Phoenix readied herself, bringing the keyblade back. "Now!" Phoenix sliced her sword through the air, and felt a tiny nick late in the swing, before getting nailed. Again.

"Your _other_ left!"

After pulling herself out of the dumpster she'd landed in, Phoenix shouted out "THAT _WAS_ MY LEFT, YOU IDIOT!"

"Son of a…" X muttered, massaging his temples. He suddenly jumped to the side, and—Phoenix assumed—the Hollow went charging past and ran into an old rusted-out motorboat.

_There!_ The air rippled around Phoenix's free hand. "Gravity Slam!" A massive disruption of energy flew through the air, thirty feet and hit where she knew the Hollow had been a moment ago. "Did I get him?"

"Yeah," X said, "but now it's just pissed, I think. But…" X glanced around the area—an empty dirt road with trash piled on the sides, a few empty shacks here and there. A streetlamp flickered. "I think I've got it now."

X picked up a piece of scrap metal, and chucked it at the Hollow's side. "Oi, you massive bitch, if you think you're so tough why don't you come after me?"

"_Kikikikiki, what arrogance~"_ The massive, dog-like Hollow cackled. Its Hollow Hole was in its neck, while its Hollow Mask covered most of its head. It charged at X, and the latter jumped high when it came near, and vaulted over the Hollow's head. It kept right on going, even as it scrambled to stop, and hit a dumpster.

"There!"

"Got it!" The Keyblade was lit up with white flames, licking along the edge. She took it in both hands, and pointed the tip at the Hollow. "Knight Fire!" An arrow of flames blasted straight at it. Even if Phoenix mcouldn't see the Hollow itself, she could certainly see the massive dent in the side of the dumpster. Dazed from the impact, it was nothing more than a massive target.

The elite fire spell struck the Hollow and exploded fantastically. It screeched in pain. "_I'm gonna kill you all~"_

"I'd like to see you try!"

_"Kikiki~_" The Hollow chuckled. It suddenly became a blur, and a static noise filled the air. The Hollow reappeared behind X, unsheathed its claws, and raked them down X's back.

_Shit!_ Phoenix thought in alarm. She took a small, hexagonal stone from her pocket, and placed it into her gauntlet. The symbol on it, a swirl, lit up. Phoenix could already feel a drain on her stamina, so she wasted no time in dashing for where the Hollow had last been.

"2 o' clock," X grunted. Phoenix grinned when her keyblade finally caught sometime solid.

"Are you gonna die?" Phoenix asked. X shook his head. "Good, 'cause _I_ don't want to die."

"Screw you."

"Screw your face."

"What?" X shook his head. He suddenly grabbed Phoenix by her coat and both dropped to their knees. Phoenix felt breathing right over her head. "Right there!"

_Gonna regret this later but I won't get another chance like this._ Phoenix dismissed the Flicker of Hope, clenched her hands into fists, and held them close to where the Hollow's chest was. She closed her eyes and focused on a single spiritual particle that made up the dog-like Hollow's body.

In a single instant, that one particle repelled every other particle next to it, blasting a massive hole in where the Hollow's stomach should have been. Blood dripped from the bottom of the Hollow's mask.

_Gravity Bomb._

The Hollow shuddered, and collapsed.

X stood back up and carefully looked over Phoenix's handiwork. "What the hell did you _do_?"

"You know that thing Nukid can do? The, um, Roku-something, Rokuogan! Yeah, that?" Phoenix said, as she carefully stood up. "Basically, that, though not nearly as powerful. And it's got its downsides." The keyblade reappeared in her hand, and she winced. Without exception, every time she performed Gravity Bomb, the rebound of the intense reversal of gravity broke her wrists. "The mask…still has to be destroyed, right?"

X nodded. Phoenix held out the keyblade, and he used one hand to guide the blade to the Hollow's mask. Upon feeling that resistance, Phoenix took hold of her keyblade with both hands, raised it over her head, and sliced downwards as hard as she could. A flash of light erupted from the wound, the mask split. In an instant, the Hollow burst apart.

"It's done," X said. He pumped his fists. "And we are off the hook!" He folded his hands behind his head.

"Great," Phoenix said distractedly. "Do you know anything about resetting broken wrists?"

"I'm a swordsman, not a doctor."

**HOWHOWHOW**

"So he was telling the truth," said the old man, watching from atop a warehouse roof as X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness continued to bicker. "Perhaps Xaldin will prove to be of some use after all."

The masked youth was silent.

"Although, his usefulness pales in comparison to the potential that girl has. That keyblade of hers is a necessity, I don't dare risk losing that. And yet…" He smiled a malicious smile. "That was only a single Hollow. What would they make of more?"

The old man was bald, and his skin was heavily tanned—stained, like his golden eyes, from existing alongside the darkness for so long. He had a curled, silver goatee on his chin. He wore a black coat over a white tunic, black boots, and a pair of white gloves. Though his shoulders were hunched and his back crooked like a feeble, weak man, his appearance belied his true strength:

This old man, Master Xehanort, was one of the strongest humans to ever be born.

"Do it," said Master Xehanort coldly, "but stay here; if they threaten to kill that girl, you may interfere, but avoid doing so otherwise."

The boy wore a full black-and-red bodysuit that looked very organic. A silver helmet with dark glass covered his face. A keyblade made of multiple gears rested in his right hand. In his left hand, between his thumb and first finger, he held a coin-like white object.

Vanitas nodded, and crushed the Hollow Bait in his hand. He scattered it across the ground. He dropped back behind his master, and leaned against the stairwell.

**HOWHOWHOW**

"Your face doesn't make any sense!"

X shook his head. "Oh, screw you, I'm outta here."

Phoenix pulled down one of her eyelids, stuck out her tongue, and said "_Bii-daa!_"

"You're not Japanese! Say '_Nyaaah_' like everyone else who speaks English when you do tha…"

Phoenix raised an eyebrow at X suddenly trailing off. "…the hell?"

"Whatever you do, don't move," X said, dead serious.

"What is it?" Phoenix said uncertainly.

"Please tell me you can still fight with those wrists."

"…I don't like where this is going. X, what's going on?"

X was silently pointing in various spots around them, mouthing numbers as he counted. "Oh, nothing, unless you consider 7—no, 8 Hollows showing up out of fracking nowhere being 'something'."

Phoenix's face went from blue, to red, to sheer white. "If that's a joke, I'm gonna kill you."

**HOWHOWHOW**

It was nothing but a miracle, that they had destroyed three of the eight Hollows that had appeared and surrounded them. It helped that the Hollows were in no way working together, they were all hungry. But unlike the dog, none of them were stupid enough to charge at X when he taunted one of them. That left them sticking close together, with X violently yanking Phoenix out of the way when an attack—or four—was headed their way.

They weren't unscathed, though; X had nearly been crushed beneath a massive fist, and a cluster of thin needles were stuck in his arm from a Hollow that resembled a fox crossed with a porcupine. Both had burns from small explosives released from one that looked like a tanuki, as well as various lacerations and broken bones. Besides aforementioned injuries, Phoenix was dealing with the pain that came from utilizing Knight Mode. She tried to avoid using that power, as she still lacked control enough to prevent it from burning skin and shredding muscle tissue.

"Dual Raid!" she shouted, flicking both Flicker of Hope and Firebird through the air in the direction he had pointed. Both keyblades struck the Hollow and flew off in random directions on impact. She summoned both back.

X's eyes flickered back and forth at the five remaining Hollows. _Damn it. There's no way we can beat all of the rest of these things. And we can't run for it._ He clenched his fist tightly. _Come on, come on, think!_

"Hey, X," Phoenix said in between gasps for breath.

"Little bit busy," he said sarcastically.

"Just listen a second," Phoenix said. "Your…demonic power, essence, whatever it is. Do you need a channel to produce it? Like do you have to have your sword or one of your guns, or can you just use your bare hands?"

He pushed her back an inch; she could feel the rush of hair as something flew barely an inch in front of her face. X grunted with his teeth, a sound something like "Che." He looked to Phoenix a moment. "No, I don't need my own weapon to make it appear, but a demonic essence is just about useless alone, and that keyblade is a little too picky for me to use."

"Yeah, but—" A wave of heat through her body made her stop a moment. _Focus, focus, focus._ She took a deep breath.

"Gravity slam, 2:00!"

A burst of repeatedly compressed and decompressed air flew from her palm. Dust was kicked up into the air as the Hollow was thrown back. "Demonic power, like yours, it's more closely aligned with, with darkness, right? You're very close to the darkness. But my magic, the Knight's magic, is closer to the light. So, when light meets dark…" Phoenix shrugged, and winced as pain shot through her torso.

"Never anything good," X muttered. "Sounds like a bad idea, we have no idea what would happen, it's completely unpredictable. Knight Fire on the right."

The flames consumed the Hollow fantastically, and Phoenix very nearly screamed in pain as the overspill burned her arm. "Got a better idea?" she snapped. She dismissed Firebird from her off hand, and held up Flicker of Hope to shoulder level.

_I'm going to regret this later, aren't I?_ X placed his hand on Flicker of Hope, resting on the ricasso. "Gotta do this fast, these guys are getting tired of playing."

"Right." Phoenix took a deep breath, and the keyblade started glowing with flickering white and gold light. X barely moved his fingers. A deep crimson flame shot down the edge of the blade. Though the light shined, X Prodigy's demonic essence was the show-stealer, the dark color of the flames making the keyblade look as though it were dripping blood.

Phoenix closed her eyes, and crossed her fingers. The five Hollows pounced. On the tip of the keyblade, the Knight's magic and demonic flames merged, and immediately exploded outward in all directions, consuming the harbor in fire. For a mile around, those few with spiritual awareness heard the pained screeches of the Hollows as their bodies were destroyed.

It had been in the moment beforehand that Master Xehanort and Vanitas had used portals of darkness to escape from the destruction. X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness did not know that. In those few moments, they could not feel anything as the firestorm raged around them.

* * *

_BTW-Hollow Bait was in Bleach, early on, Uryu used it if you don't remember. If you haven't read Bleach, Hollow Bait attracts a ton of Hollows (demonic soul-eating creatures) to an area. Hollows can only be seen by the spiritually aware-Soul Reapers, other Hollows, and some humans. I'd imagine hanging around Soul Reapers and X all the time would make most of the FAF spiritually aware. Okay, I'm making excuses, get off my back._

_Also, Master Xehanort, Vanitas, and Xaldin are all from Kingdom Hearts. Master Xehanort is singlehandedly responsible for everything bad that has happened in the KH-verse so far in the series._


	4. The Battle Begins

_A/N: I have PLOT! ^_^ And a whole lot of caffeine in my system..._

**Chapter 3: The Battle Begins**

By the time the sun began to rise in Los Angeles, over thirty Hollows had appeared in the city, and that number was growing quickly. Taken by complete surprise, the guardians of the city, the Fanfiction Author Fighters, had a delay in how quickly they could act. To add to the confusion, several members were taking care of business in other worlds, limiting their efficiency in covering the massive urban sprawl. All the while, X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness were still missing.

But not for much longer.

**HOWHOWHOW**

"What hit me…" X shook his head, and looked up. The rays of the sun just barely brushed the horizon. It would soon be daylight. Around 5 AM. _Genius idea, absolutely perfect. Probably almost died. If that attack hadn't gotten rid of the Hollows, we probably _would_ be dead._

_Wow, X never struck me as the kind of guy to see anything positive in anything._

"Stuff it, I'm tired of listening to you."

"I'll keep quiet if you will, I feel like Thor's pounding on the inside of my skull," Phoenix said. She pinched the skin between her eyebrows.

_Can empathize with that…_ X breathed deeply.

"If you aren't going to shut up, then neither will I," Phoenix muttered.

"I get it, you don't need to say it twice," X scoffed. _Idiot._

"Evidently, I do, ginger."

X ground his teeth together. "There's enough problems without devolving to name-calling."

"Hypocrite."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you have short-term memory loss or something? You just called me an idiot, idiot!"

X was silent for a moment. Then: _Phoenix, have you become a psychic sometime in the past few days?_

"Uh…no? Wait…"

Phoenix suddenly felt an unpleasant sensation that must have resembled the one felt like a dog when they were yanked back by their collar—and Phoenix promised at that moment that she would never do that again.

X turned on the spot, looking every direction for any sign of a white duster or a sky blue keyblade. _If you can hear me, think of the words 'Dusk and Dawn'._

"Why?" _What the heck…_

_And I can hear what she's…forget it, doesn't matter whether I say it out loud or not._ "I heard that 'what the hell'. Where are you?"

"Um…" Phoenix crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess…I don't know, there's a dumpster around a hundred feet away. I think I destroyed that one…Hold on, I heard that, and that's impossi—"

"Is there a—"

"Yes, a broken plasma screen to my right, but there's got to be a better explanation—"

X ignored her protests in favor of snatching up a discarded piece of glass, cautious of the broken edges. He held it up carefully, and said several four-letter words in succession. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Looking back at him was a half-unfamiliar reflection, scowling in irritation. Only the left half of his Hollow mask remained, but it wasn't exactly his own face on the opposite side—androgynous, with an indeterminable age. His eyes were the same color, blood red. His coat was the same as ever, but he wore a silver gauntlet on his right hand.

In the glass, crimson eyes flashed to emerald, and Phoenix's voice came out, "Somewhere out there, Karma is just giggling like _mad_ right about now."

**HOWHOWHOW**

_**Los Angeles, 8:00 A.M.**_

The Hollow resembled a Cat Sith, but only in its coloring; it stood up on its hind legs, and the proportions were closer to that of a human, besides being ten feet tall. Flat blades resembling those used in a guillotine protruded from its arms. The blades sang as the Hollow swept through the air at BlackcatRin.

Rin calmly loosened her sword from its sheath. The Hollow, already its pride injured from its failure to land anything more than scratches on Rin, charged madly without taking care to prevent openings. Rin breathed out as she fully drew her sword and swept it around, a torrent of wind tracing the blade and expanding as she struck the creature. Its mask was blown apart into a thousand pieces, and its body dissolved. Rin breathed back in. _Windcutter._

"Watch it!" A flash of silver, and an inhuman cry. Rin turned, and saw ShadowDJ, the Grim Reaper's apprentice, in a recovery position from striking with his scythe, his weapon out wide and his body low to the ground. The egg-like creature he had attacked—just before it leaped onto Rin—was turning to ash. "Some spider-thing made a bunch of eggs, they didn't disappear when it was destroyed," DJ explained in brief. "Annoying, more than anything, drain your stamina if they touch you."

"Ah," Rin said. "Thanks."

They turned around, standing back-to-back as a chain formed, link-by-link, creating a levitating circle with a twenty-foot radius. On opposite sides of the circle, identical bodies were created; genderless, with jet-black flesh and masks depicting a screaming face. Their arms were a foot too long for their 8 foot tall forms, while their legs ended in flat stubs.

The chain cut apart in two places, leaving the two bodies of the Hollow with chain whips on the ends of its arms. By the time the bodies thought to move, DJ and Rin had begun their assault.

DJ expertly attacked Alpha with his scythe, closing in as near as he dared—so long as he was not too far out, even if he were struck by one of the chains, it would not be moving fast enough to do any severe damage. Meanwhile, Rin took a different approach; her movements were quick enough to let her dodge Beta's swipes. Her pupils became snakelike as she used the openings to attack with a combination of bursts of flame and cutting winds.

Alpha's chains came back, and flew straight at DJ. He spun his scythe blade-over-end to deflect the attack, came close, and brought his weapon down point-first. Alpha's right arm was severed off at the shoulder.

Beta, ignorant to its other half's plight, swept each chain across its body; Rin dropped to the ground to dodge, before coming back up to drive her sword through Beta's chest. It seemed to ignore it, only lunging forward at Rin. She dropped back, and the end of a chain flew at her. She launched herself forward and upward, landing lightly upon the chain and taking off as fast as she could, just barely reaching Beta before the chain went slack; she pulled her sword free, flipped over its back, and ran it through, this time twisting her sword and dragging it through the Hollow's body to remove it. The sudden torrent that had allowed her to move so agilely quietly died down.

It was then that the chains of both halves of the Hollow rejoined with a _pang!_ Each half—one literally disarmed, the other mutilated—were dragged together. Each body lost its form, fusing entirely with the other. From the mass, a new body formed; this alone, with white flesh in place of black, and the same mask resized to accommodate the Hollow's nearly twice-as-large form. The chains wound around its arms and legs, and it roared in wrath.

"Great," DJ said, preparing to fight again, but Rin put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. She stayed silent, instead pointing to a figure descending rapidly from the sky in explanation.

The Hollow really never knew what hit it; after all, it is not too often that a Half-Demon who has been magically or otherwise forced into the same body as that of a teenage girl (who hate each other, for that matter), drops from the sky, carrying a ridiculously large broadsword that was longer than he was tall, and splits one perfectly in half.

X sheathed Rebellion, having retrieved it and his other weapons from the HQ.

_Seriously, was that even necessary? Dropping from the sky like an angel of death…_ Phoenix reconsidered it. _Actually, that's kind of awesome._

"Told ya," X said. He turned to Rin and DJ. "You guys okay?"

"…Za?" was what DJ said in reply. "Uh…X?"

"Duh."

Rin hesitated before speaking. "Phoenix?"

Green eyes. "Yeah." She grimaced. "It's complicated, confusing, and we don't know anything more about it than the two of you do."

"That's…weird. I mean…" DJ shook his head.

"Yeah, we know," Phoenix said.

Red eyes. "We can sit here exchanging pointless words all day, or we can do work that needs to be done." X drew Dusk and shot one of the egg-like Hollows that had been sneaking up on them.

_And not die,_ Phoenix added.

As a massive Hollow that looked like nothing so much as a giant worm reared up across the square from them, Rin said "Incidentally, do you two have anything to do with these Hollows?"

"You're the second person who's said that," X noted. "TL assumed the same thing when we ran into him earlier."

Green eyes. "Well, it would kind of make sense, we were fighting a Hollow, and suddenly a whole army of them show up in L.A…"

"The answer is, no," X said pointedly. "No clue where they came from, but we had nothing to do with it."

X was not lying, exactly; the army of Hollows entering Los Angeles was directly connected to X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness, but he had no way of knowing that at the time.

**HOWHOWHOW**

_**Master Xehanort's Castle, The Keyblade Graveyard, 12:00 P.M.**_

"An unexpected development," the old man, Master Xehanort, said. "I admit I underestimated the potency of the bait. But this is not necessarily one we cannot use." His voice was creaky, like an old rocking chair, and weak from age, but a layer of malice lay beneath it. "After all, with these children running like rats, spread thin across the city, nobody would notice for quite a while if they went missing."

"Though that boy could be a problem," said a man whose face was hidden by mask and hood. Both yellow, but a sickening shade; his garb was that of a classical supervillain, though that did not mean he could be underestimated as just another madman. The Hobgoblin, AKA Roderick Kingsley, was an old and powerful enemy of Spider-Man's. Taking up his title after discovering the lair of the original Green Goblin, he used it to sabotage companies which rivaled his own fashion design firm, with Spider-Man foiling his plans time after time. Finally, Norman Osborn, the first Green Goblin, bought out Kingsley's company from beneath him. With a grudge against too many people, Hobgoblin wanted revenge.

"He's one of that group's strongest, you said," Hobgoblin continued. "He won't be easy to defeat."

"But they're distracted by their dislike for one another," Xehanort said. "In addition, their stamina will be drained from fighting nigh-on constantly. Vanitas should have little trouble in subduing them."

"However," said the White Witch, Jadis. "Are there not other options besides that girl? There are other keybearers in the universe, still; even the sister—"

"—is more sure of herself, and has far too much light in her heart to be of any use," said Xehanort.

"If you intend to bring up the keyblade master," said a man with cornrows in his hair and very impressive sideburns, "Even he would be able to tell that something was wrong. Sora—" He gave the slightest hint of a twitch. "—may be naïve, but he has good instincts. And even if he were fooled, his friends would not." The man's name was Xaldin. Once a member of the feared Organization XIII, Xaldin was a Nobody, a being with no heart, no emotions, little more than a shadow. And he had good reason to know about the master of the keyblade, Sora. It had been that boy who had defeated him, leaving Xaldin to fade into darkness. It had been an indeterminable time before somebody—that somebody being the old man across the room from him—had restored his body and mind to the physical world. Like Hobgoblin, Xaldin wanted revenge, but he had another goal, his goal in his first life of regaining his heart.

Xaldin said "Compared to the idea of involving Sora in a plan without expecting him to even unintentionally ruin it…it would be easier to make a Nobody cry."

An incredibly large humanoid wearing Aztec leather armor and a headdress spoke in a deep, rolling voice several alien words that meant something along the lines of "Challenge accepted!" His name was Ogre; a supremely powerful being who seemed to be nothing more than a mindless beast and yet had a level of sentience; he was a living weapon, capable of absorbing the essences of warriors he had defeated to obtain their skills. It was his only purpose in life.

Two different individuals in the chamber seemed apathetic to the discussion at hand. The first was a woman who was quite literally an enigma—if she was referred to, it was by the name Unknown. In place of eyes, glowing white spheres lay in her sockets. A substance resembling tar covered her naked body, concealing her modesty. Only she knew her true identity; Jun Kazama, a young woman with a desire to do good, only to be possessed by a powerful wolf demon. Unknown's intentions were unknown.

The second individual was one of the least human there; Baraka was a being called a Tarkata, from a place called Outworld. A monsterous creature that resembled a cross between a vampire and Wolverine, Baraka was also the only one of the eleven who had a previous connection to the Author Fighters. Once, in a Mortal Kombat tournament, he had fought the Spirit Warrior Melody Yushino, and was beaten badly. Despite the assumption that he would want revenge, it would not seem so; like Unknown, his reasons for allying himself with these ten other villains were a mystery.

"Okay, that's just great, everyone here is a bunch of bastards who for the most part want revenge, and everyone's psychotic," said the Nostalgia Critic, ready to do what he did best. "But so far there's been _nothing_ elaborated on, just a bunch of ambiguous phrases thrown around, and _none of us_ besides the ice queen—" The Critic's hat was suddenly turned to stone. "—and Mr. Silent Treatment—" Vanitas did not acknowledge the Critic. "—know what's going on here! EXPLAIN, OLD MAN, _EXPLAIN!_"

A thin, light blue lance flew through the air, burying itself a bare inch away from the Nostalgia Critic's head. Despite claims as to the impossibility of the occurrence, the Critic would have sworn that Xaldin was smirking.

"He has a point, I suppose," said Xehanort. He intertwined his fingers, silent for a moment as he searched for a starting point. "It was over a decade ago—nearer to fifteen years—that I began to feel the wear of age. Though my mind was sharp, my skills perfect, my body was failing me. In order to stave off death, I created several different paths I might take; the one I hoped for, the possession of a young keyblade apprentice, only partially succeeded, at the cost of my memories. This path was the least desirable, for the side effects.

"In this castle wrought from a blood-soaked battlefield, I wove a spell which created a Time Lock—if the passage of time is a line, a Time Lock pinches off a few moments in time, and saves it. A copy of myself and my apprentice, Vanitas—the versions now before you—were sealed, with a few requirements necessary for the Time Lock to open: first, complete death, the body a shell, the soul destroyed, the heart returned to Kingdom Hearts; and second, a sacrifice of human blood."

"The side effects?" Tai Lung said simply, the first time he had spoken in this meeting.

Xehanort closed his eyes. "Yes. The least worrying, and more likely a result of the strange nature of his existence, Vanitas has lost his faculties in the process." He looked to the being of pure darkness a moment, created from a fractured-off piece of another young keyblade apprentice's heart. "The most inhibiting; Vanitas and I have both lost the ability to grow, to become stronger than we were before, restrained to the point we were at when I created the Time Lock. In addition, the spell is yet incomplete; a vast majority of my strength remains unavailable to me—though that which remains is more than enough to defeat any foe." The implication was clear enough. Even if he was weakened, Xehanort would be able to defeat any one of these villains who dared to try and take advantage of this opportunity. "To restore my strength—well, it is a 'seal', after all. Thus why we require a keyblade, one from this time period which retains its full power to open any lock."

"And that's where bird-girl comes in," said Hobgoblin.

"Precisely." Xehanort smiled a cruel smile. "And from there, there will be nothing left to hold us—" _Me._ "—back from our—" _My._ "—goals.

"Some wish vengeance on those who wrongfully believed themselves to be morally superior. Some wish for power. Some wish for respect." Xehanort stood. "Let those wishes become a reality. To the future; to an infinite ice crossing the surface of every world; to the Hounds of Winter."

**Baraka, the Guard**

**Unknown, the Priestess**

**Xaldin, the Count**

**Vanitas, the Bishop**

**Jadis, the Lady**

**Hobgoblin, the Earl**

**The Nostalgia Critic, the Duke**

**Ogre, the Jack**

**Tai Lung, the Ace**

**Master Xehanort, the King**

_Plip._

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for reading._


	5. In Fiction Music Makes Every Better

_A/N: I own nothing but the character of Phoenix of the Darkness. All Author Fighters belong to their respective owners, the concept of a Hollow belongs to Tite Kubo._

**Chapter 4: In Fiction, Music Makes Everything Better**

_**10:12 A.M., the 2nd Day of the Hollow Invasion**_

"Told you so," said Kitten Hatchigamaguchi. She had arrived during the night, having been in Mongolia City with the Metagang, and was one of a few Authors who had managed to get back to Los Angeles with some amount of speed.

"Hm?" Phoenix said. "You said what?"

"That you guys would regret fighting all the time," Kitty said flatly.

Phoenix and X considered it. Red eyes. "When did you say that?"

"Don't you remember?"

_**After the Battle with Omega, St. Matthew's Hospital**_, _**ICU**_

_"It's one in the afternoon," X said. "You've slept who knows how long, you're just being dramatic"_

_"Did you almost kill yourself unleashing a new power and kill your best friend recently?" Phoenix snapped at him. "Maybe after you've done that, you'll feel a little tired too!"_

_"I've almost killed myself dozens of times, it's nothing special," X muttered._

_"Of course, I should have known, since you're so stupid you probably walk into death traps on a daily basis!"_

_"One of these days, you guys are going to get in a ton of trouble from your arguing," Kitty said as she rubbed her temples._

_"Stay out of it!" Phoenix and X said at the same time._

* * *

"...He started it," Phoenix grumbled.

"How is it my fault? You're the one who had the bright idea of crossing the streams or whatever that was!"

"I mean it's _your fault_ from the _beginning_! You called me dramatic, you provoked me!"

"For the love of God, _get. Over. It!_ I already apologized for that, everyone was still running on painkillers, I didn't know what I was saying!"

"You still said it! You can't just say 'sorry' and pretend nothing happened!"

"Did I just make it worse?" Kitty wondered off-handedly.

"Probably," Roscoso admitted. He raised his voice to make himself heard over X and Phoenix, although there argument had devolved mostly into a psychic shouting match. "Could you guys pick this up later? We need every hand we can get!"

A few moments later: "Fine," X said. He stood up from the couch, adjusting a bandage wound around his left arm.

With the increase in numbers overnight from just under ten to just over twenty, counting some of the members of the Authors' solo teams coming in, the mad rush to just take down every Hollow that appeared as they appeared became more organized; six hour patrol shifts over a certain district of the city, switching out with just a little bit of delay. Several storage units previously rented out across the city were being used as bunkers, though most of the ones not on patrol were resting at the HQ.

The number of Hollows had shown no sign of shrinking-worse, it seemed to be growing. X had already brought up how, with the large number of Hollows as well as the massive food source (it had taken Phoenix a moment to realize that by 'food', he meant 'humans'), there was a possibility that one of the massive Menos Grande could appear.

"I'm going to send out a call to Ichigo and Yoruichi," X said, digging out his cell phone.

_It'd be nice to have Soul Society behind us,_ Phoenix agreed.

"Not Soul Society, Soul Society wants my head."

_Why would they want your head? It's not like there's anything worth taking in there._

"It's your head, too, remember?"

_...Oh. Right. So, what did you do that the Captain-Commander hates you for?_

Instead of explaining, X brought the memory to the fore of his mind. _That's what I did._

_...Wait, really...are you serious? I mean, that's just...poor Kyoraku! And the spoon...geez, what's wrong with you?_ But Phoenix was laughing, despite that, or at least as much laughing as one could do with a thought.

"Eh, it was worth it." As X waited for somebody to pick up the other end, he said "Maybe we'll get lucky and Urahara will decide to drop in."

_Urahara? I thought you guys hated each other, or mortal enemies, or rivals, or possibly drinking buddies, I wasn't really paying attention..._

_Eh, it's confusing, I just kind of go with the flow of it._

* * *

**Synchronization at 4.3%**

**In layman's terms, a single shared thought: "I will not die."**

* * *

X struck down another Hollow, this one resembling a literally flying fish. Mostly sarcastically, he said "Oi, Phoenix, you haven't been talking at all, what's wrong with you?"

_Mm? Oh, nothing,_ Phoenix replied, as though he had said it seriously. _Just letting you focus on the fight at hand._

"Seems like you'd want a piece of the action."

_You're confusing me with you, I never said I enjoyed fighting. Besides, I don't have so much pride that I won't admit that you're a better combatant than I am._ Green eyes, a determined glare, and Flicker of Hope appeared in her hands. She turned, and fended off a massive claw. Relative to the size of its hands, the ape-like Hollow was very small, but it had a far reach and more strength than it appeared to have. "What-the-hell-X-are-you-trying-to-get-me-killed?" Phoenix said quickly. The Hollow threw a punch at her, and she held one hand up. "Gravity Slam!" A wave of super-compressed air flew at the Hollow, knocking its hand away. Red eyes, the keyblade vanished, and X drew Rebellion. With minimal effort, he dodged a one-two punching attack, ran at the Hollow, and swept upwards.

"Inferno Divider!"

From the other side of the Hollow, a calm voice said "Rankyaku."

The Hollow was split in half vertically and horizontally by the respective attacks, destroying its mask completely-even if it had not, its body would have been torn apart.

"Why didn't you notice that thing! It was _huge, _and _loud!_"

"I _did_ notice it, you just wouldn't shut up about pride-though thanks for the compliment," X noted.

"Huh," said Nukid, considering the scene before him as the smoke began to clear. "So, I assume the Hollow invasion was tangently related to you two...one...two?"

"No!" Phoenix snapped. "And I swear, if you say any variation of 'That's really weird,' I'm gonna kick your ass, Nukid! All I've been hearing in the past 24 hours is 'Wow, that's strange,' 'Huh, weird,' and 'That's odd.' I _get_ it, it's _weird_, it's the weirdest thing I've ever—well, I suppose there was the cursed teapot, but I don't even know what _that_ was about. Anyways! It's weird. Get over it. Okay? Okay. Next question."

"Have you lost your mind?" was the next question.

"Probably. But, like I think I'm a little justified to be wound tight right now! The universe hates me or something, first there was that one and now there's X—"

"You heard voices in your head before this?" X said skeptically.

"No, I'm not, that's just crazy," Phoenix retorted. "I'm not a schizophrenic, I'm just stressed, okay?"

"You're one to talk about stress, I'm going to wind up committing a murder-suicide if this doesn't end soon," X muttered.

"Shit, DP really wasn't exaggerating about you two," Nukid said flatly. "I'm gonna go find a challenge...anyone listening? Hm? Screw it." A moment later there came a soft breathing as Nukid had fallen asleep standing up.

* * *

Most of their fellow Author Fighters' reactions to X Prodigy and Phoenix's...'condition', was something similar. Either they said some variation of "That's really weird," or Phoenix warned them against it, followed by the two of them continuing to argue (several times nearly causing their deaths from being distracted) with whomever they were talking to walking away to do something else besides listening to them.

There were a few interesting ones, though. Hurricane's Quill had checked his hip flask to make sure somebody had not slipped pure moonshine into it. Advent had started wondering whether their death would count as one sacrifice or two. And Phoenix's younger sister Goddess, to Phoenix's shock and discomfort, had wondered whether it was true that guys think about sex every seven seconds.

_**4:03 P.M., the same day.**_

"Are you humming?" X asked out of the clear blue sky (although it was actually quite gray).

"Hm? Yeah," Phoenix replied.

"What song?"

"...World is Mine by Hatsune Miku."

"Isn't that in Japanese?"

"Thus why I've only got the tune, not the lyrics."

"Don't you know any English songs?"

"Well, yeah, but World is Mine is an earworm."

X couldn't argue with that, but he soon enough found himself humming a different song as he struck down minion Hollows belonging to the oversized spider-like Hollow.

_I don't recognize that tune,_ Phoenix commented as he met a relaxed moment as the Hollow created more minions. _Also, while it's almost impossible to break spider silk, if you can nail it with a high enough temperature it'll melt. Knight Fire?_

"Go for it."

Green eyes, and Phoenix took a grip on the spider silk binding her left arm to her torso. While silk could usually handle a temperature of up to 400 degrees Celsius, Phoenix had underestimated the kind of temperature her special technique could produce (for comparison, a cigarette could burn at over 700 degrees). So not only did she torch the spider silk with her golden flames, she put a large scorch mark on the jacket. "Oops."

_Just...forget it,_ X said. His mind took back control. "And the song's 'Fallen Angels' by Black Veil Brides."

_I feel like I've listened to them before..._ Phoenix considered.

As the grubs came after him again, to keep him away from the original Hollow, X half-sang-half-muttered: "We are the in-between/cast down as sons of war/Struck to the earth like lightning/on this world we're torn..."

X stepped, swept Rebellion around, sheathed the blade, drew his twin pistols. He fired both at once, side-stepped away from a glob of spider silk, launched a volley at the spider, destroyed the latest wave of grubs. He ran for the spider, blasted apart another string of silk, took aim at the Hollow's face-

_Watch that!_ In a moment, Phoenix's mind came to the fore and she waved upwards as her gauntlet glowed. Just as the spider prepared to stomp its foot through her stomach, it lost all of its anchoring. X barely moved to block its pincer-like foot, spun about, raised his sword, and brought it across the Hollow's body. He just barely dropped back in time to avoid being covered in pus.

Phoenix found herself mouthing: "This is how we'll stand when/when they burn our houses down/this is how we'll be oh glory~" She shook her head. "Um, yeah, sorry, knew you had that, I just-"

"No," X said, rewinding the previous few moments in his head. "That...it might have just been a fluke, but..."

_...?_ "Okay, so I get that there's a constant beat to a song, but fighting in a rhythm?"

"It's different, but it's also the same reason why you can tell when somebody is about to attack by following their breathing. It's constant, something that you can keep track of. Can't make any assumptions yet, but it might be worth trying...and there's a guinea pig!" X readied himself as a Hollow that resembled a massive toad with a long tail and six wings appeared. "I'll attack, you defend, got it?"

_Right!_ Phoenix confirmed.

The Hollow charged, and X raised Dawn and Dusk. He fired, it shrank back. It whipped its tail around, Phoenix reversed gravity and flew into the air. X turned over in midair and pulled the triggers quickly. The Hollow screeched, Phoenix took control to land more softly. X raised Dawn and let loose one last shot, straight into the Hollow's mask. A long crack formed down the middle, and the white mask shattered.

_Little girl, little girl why are you crying?/Inside your restless soul, your heart is dying/little one, little one your soul is purging/of love and razor blades, your blood is surging,_ Phoenix hummed. _Okay, so that was pretty cool._

"More than that," X said. "The two of us-"

"-working together to fight-"

"-are much faster-"

"-than just you, X."

There was silence for a moment. "Don't do that again," the Hollow Devil said.

"Agreed."

* * *

**Synchronization at 28.6% and climbing**.

* * *

"Now that's very interesting," the old evil said, those unnatural eyes gleaming.

_A/N: Songs quoted in this chapter include 'Fallen Angels' by Black Veil Brides (the theme for Team Faust), 'Let the Flames Begin' by Paramore (Phoenix's theme), and Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl) by Green Day (the story theme for Black Guardians and the battle theme for Phoenix of the Darkness vs Omega)._

_Speaking of Black Guardians, that little flashback at the beginning of the chapter? Copy-pasted from the epilogue of Black Guardians. Which I posted a year and seven months ago. That's one example of just how long I've had Hounds of Winter waiting for me._


	6. Hope and Despair

_A/N: I've been waiting to be able to write this chapter for two years. Enjoy._

_Songs lyrics used in this chapter include "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and "Let's Kill Tonight" by Panic! At the Disco, and "A Tout Le Monde" by Megadeth._

**Chapter 5: Hope and Despair**

_**8:03 P.M.**_

"You're not screwing with me?" X Prodigy said. "I just, I gotta make sure, Yoruichi, because I could just about kiss you right now."

Somewhere on the other line, X heard Ichigo Kurosaki yell out "_Hey, I heard that!_"

"It's just a theory, but it's probable," Yoruichi Shihoin said from somewhere across Los Angeles over Ichigo's cell phone. "Essentially, because of your nature as a part-Hollow, you lack a true body, instead unconsciously creating a body from spiritual particles. Therefore, both your and Phoenix's souls inhabit Phoenix's body, with the change in appearance accounted for by your massive spiritual wavelength overflowing the limits imposed by a flesh body. Ichigo has a badge that can be used to eject a soul—or souls, in this case—from a body. Replacing Phoenix's soul into her body is no problem after that, and everyone goes home happy."

"Everyone agrees with that emotion," X said. "So, this then happened because of…"

Phoenix made a guess: "Exhaustion, shock, and pure shit luck."

"Actually, you're probably right," X admitted. "At any rate, thanks a million. Don't know how much longer I can stand this."

"Hm? You seem to be getting along alright from what I can tell," Yoruichi said, somewhat amused.

"Ah…eugh…be there in an hour," X grunted. He stowed his phone back away. Phoenix had nothing to say on Yoruichi's comment. X replaced his earbuds and hit play on a Megadeath/Panic! At the Disco playlist (it was something vaguely resembling a compromise on their part).

_Let's just get going already! Oh, I can't wait to be free, free, free!_ Phoenix nearly sang.

It was then that behind them, there came a swirling mass of darkness accompanied by a deep _fwoosh!_ From the depths of the darkness came a man in a black coat, his next most noticeable features being his cornrows and very impressive sideburns. It was Xaldin, formerly of Organization XIII, currently of the Hounds of Winter, though neither X nor Phoenix knew this.

"Now then, where do you think you're going?" said Xaldin cooly. It was a simple instruction; knock them out, they would be too distracted arguing with each other to fight back.

Over the sound of 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa', neither could hear him. "You would dare to ignore me? Hmph. How impudent. But then I suppose he never specified what type of condition you had to be in."

One of Xaldin's flat-bladed lances appeared with a rush of air, befitting his title: the Whirlwind Lancer. He barely needed to take aim, a breeze rushing around the lance guiding it to its target, the small of X's back…

"_He senses something call it desperation/another dollar another day."_ Green eyes, and gravity beat wind as the lance was yanked to the ground.

"That's no Hollow," X said.

_Thank you, Captain Obvious,_ Phoenix replied.

"Come quietly, or I will enjoy taking you by force," said Xaldin.

There was a pause. "Phoenix, can you read lips?"

_Why would I be able to read lips?_

"A simple 'no' would have sufficed."

_Yeah, well, I could have avoided the sarcasm and you could have avoided using big words like 'sufficed'. Just because you have an accent is no justification for talking like that._

"I'm not the one with an accent, you're the one with an accent."

Xaldin recalled the first of his lances, and summoned the five others—two held in each hand, the last two suspended in midair by a sphere of wind surrounding his body. "Hmph!" He lunged forward, his feet barely touching the ground as he sent all six lances forward.

X loosed his sword and swept it around to block the attack and pin Xaldin's weapons to the ground. With his other hand, he removed an earbud and said "Oi, asshole, who are you?"

"Does it matter to a dead man?" Xaldin created a burst of wind and freed his lances. He brought his hand forward, and four lances crossed before him, but X only dropped back a step. As Xaldin pulled his weapons back for another blow, X sliced straight upwards. It was a powerful blow, enough to leave a deep wound, but as the blade came within a foot of Xaldin's body an opposing force slowed it down, leaving only enough speed to leave a thin cut on his upper arm. With his other arm Xaldin thrust forward; X just barely moved out the way, and Rebellion dropped as Phoenix pulled a clenched fist back. The air around her arm became disrupted.

"Gravity…" She exploded out of a crouch, bringing her arm forward and putting all of her strength into piercing the sphere of wind around Xaldin's body. She yelled as she made contact, and fired off a gravity slam reinforced by her own kinetic energy. "…Punch!" Xaldin was violently thrown back, his heels skidding along the ground and his lances sent flying in all directions as he flailed his limbs to keep from falling head-over-heels.

In their eyes, intense red mingled with determined green.

"_A tout le monde/a tout mes amis/je vous aime/je dois partir~"_

* * *

**Synchronization at 87.9%**

**Synchronization at 88.1%**

**Synchronization at 88.7%**

**Synchronization at…**

"That's it, that's right, give the black-coat exactly what he deserves, cut him, burn him, bash his head in. I know you want to, just do it!"

* * *

Xaldin finally managed to catch himself without looking like a fool. X and Phoenix readied themselves. A powerful wind whirled around Xaldin, his feet left the ground and his eyes gleamed with malevolence. His lances spun around his body at high speed. In the blink of an eye, he closed the thirty foot gap and attacked.

"_May your feet serve you well/And the rest be sent to hell/where they always have belonged/cold hearts colder songs."_

Parry, strike, step back, charge forward, swipe at his leg, opening at the hand, brush off the pain, attack, attack, attack.

The Agility stone lit up with a touch. Placed in the back of the Diamondsteel Gauntlet, Xaldin's speed was matched, even as he pushed himself to his limits. His lances were shattered one by one with powerful strokes of Rebellion, and before he could re-form his weapons the Flicker of Hope was at his throat.

"Are you going to give up?" they said in a single voice. The timing of their words was slightly off, but anyone who was unaware of the circumstances would be unable to notice it; they would only hear one person speaking.

Xaldin was silent, a curious, unnerving expression on his face, as though he were realizing something. A something which would turn out for the worse for Phoenix and X. "So, Xehanort was right after all." Before they could ask who Xehanort was—they would be as like as not to receive a riddle in reply—Xaldin continued. "That shadow which sits within your heart—though by now I suppose it's nearly filled it. Is that correct, girl?"

* * *

**Synchronization at 41.0% and dropping rapidly.**

* * *

Somewhere along the way the MP3 player had been dropped, the earbuds crushed underfoot.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Phoenix snapped. But X could feel her mood changing like reading a thermometer. One second, confidence, resolve. The next, irritation, anger. Apprehension. Panic.

_Phoenix, what's he talking about?_

Either she did not know herself, or Phoenix was trying to ignore him. "What the hell are you talking about?" she repeated.

Xaldin smirked. "Denial. But then, it would appear not even that boy knows. If one who shares a mind with you does not know, it would not be wrong to assume that you are the only one that knows?" He tucked his arms behind his back, closing his eyes and chuckling, as though he no longer cared about the fight…or, more likely, he never cared about the fight. "Is it pride that drives you to fight alone? Or perhaps distrust in those other teenagers?"

Fear. _Fear of what? Phoenix, what's going on?_

"Shut up, X! And you!" She pointed Flicker of Hope at Xaldin. "Who the hell are you? Who's this 'Xehanort' guy? And how do you know about—" She cut herself off. Her surface thoughts, the only thing X could hear without actively trying, became filled with one word repeating_: __chain-chain-chain-chain-chain-chain-chain-chain-chain..._

_She doesn't want me to know what she's really thinking about,_ X realized.

"Xaldin. An old man who needs that shadow. As for the third question…well, I'll leave you guessing." A portal leading to the deepest darkness opened behind Xaldin as he took a step back. "Until next time…or not."

"NO! Get back _here!_ _Don't you run away!_" Phoenix ran for the portal. A memory surfaced—a teenage boy with golden eyes, taunting her as he vanished into an identical portal—and that was the last comprehensible thought Phoenix had for the next few minutes. As the Corridor of Darkness began to vanish, Phoenix nearly collapsed, her knees buckled and she had to steady herself with a hand on the ground to keep from dropping completely. X felt as though somebody had just hit him upside the head, completely disorienting for a moment. For him, it quickly passed, but Phoenix's mind was in turmoil.

Her thoughts were a mess. Everything was abstract to the point where X could not make heads nor tails of it even if he had the context. A mix of a hundred indescribable emotions, dozens of disconnected phrases and instincts. Fear, wrath, pride, hesitation

_Chain her down_

Annoyed fear panic turmoil

_Get out stop_

Something breaking somebody screaming

_Stop stop stop_

Terror pain anxiety

_GET OUT OF MY HEAD!_

"Phoenix," X said quietly. "Take a breath."

It was as though his tranquility were contagious. The chatter quickly softened, slowed down. "Just like that, okay? You're having a panic attack, that's all it is, everything is going to be alright. Just listen to me, it's going to be okay." He kept on talking, repeating himself, as the chatter slowly lessened.

After a time—how long, it was impossible to say—a clear thought finally came: _I think I'm okay now._

"Good." X stood, and checked the time. 9:17. "Hope Yoruichi's still hanging around there. Better get going." He tried to keep from mentioning the subject which had triggered Phoenix's panic attack, but then, it was nearly impossible for them to hide their thoughts from one another.

_I know. Xaldin,_ Phoenix stated, a hint of shame in her tone.

"So you do know what he was talking about?"

"Yeah."

"And you were denying it to try and prevent me from knowing?"

"…yeah." There it was again. Filling her surface thoughts with one word repeated: _end._ "If you'll let me wait until after we're back to normal, I'll tell you everything. But you have to promise not to tell the others."

X hesitated before answering. "Fine." His own voice seemed somewhat distant. Phoenix said something else. He could not quite make it out, and tried to ask her to repeat it. Nothing seemed exactly right. He had the sensation of falling, and knew no more.

* * *

**? ? ?**

It was dark, and quiet. There was a scent of mildew, smoke, and ozone in the air. The Hollow Devil did not move an inch, waiting…

_Creaaaaak._

He turned and struck out at the sound. The side of his hand met something solid—and annoyed. He heard somebody curse. "…Phoenix?"

A faint glow was cast over the immediate area as Phoenix called upon the Flicker of Hope. There was a visible mark on her forehead. It took a few moments for it to register in X's mind. "Hey, did I miss something?"

"No, we haven't been separated, unfortunately," Phoenix said flatly. "This place isn't real."

"Oh, I see…wait, no, you lost me. What?"

"This place is deep in…well, I suppose it would be _both_ of our hearts, but it's a location based on one of my memories. It's a point of semi-consciousness where, in theory, anything can happen, but because of the limits placed on it by this memory, it is bound by logic. You punch me in the face, it hurts like hell."

"So…it's a dream?"

"A bit more complicated, a bit more dangerous than a dream, but yeah."

"Whose dream?"

"Neither of ours."

"That doesn't explain anything."

All at once, candles lit up around the room. X recognized it as a small church. The pews had been trashed. The entire building looked as though it were about to fall apart. "This has to do with that 'shadow', doesn't it?"

Phoenix turned away from him. She said coldly, "I said I'd tell you after—"

X grabbed Phoenix by the shoulder, turned her around, took hold of the front of her jacket with both hands, and lifted her to eye level. "That was _before_ I got sucked into some half-mad dreamscape. _What the hell is going on?_"

With a sudden release, Phoenix dropped a few inches and coughed to try and get her breath back. She looked up at him, glared, and clenched her teeth. "I fucking hate you."

Her gaze cast over the chapel. Her eyes went to the bloodstains on the floor, in the back, just to the left of the door.

"You remember," she started, "back when everyone had to fight the Black Guardians? All that? At the hospital, I told some of you guys about how I killed…about my battle with Omega?" X was silent, listening. "And during the fight, I talked to my dad, or his spirit or memory or something? Told me about the 'Power of the Knights' and all that shit, that's not important." She took a deep breath. Her hands were trembling.

"Where we were standing was…it was like a stained-glass platform. All of it was kind of like where we are now—you called it a dreamscape? It was like that. Not quite real. But on the platform, there was an image of me…except it wasn't me, it was—I'm sorry, I'm really bad at this. It was like a future-me. I looked older, I had a white coat—" Phoenix played with the buttons on her sleeve. Her old black duster had been trashed during the battle with Omega, leading her to switch it up. "—and I had the Flicker of Hope instead of the Firebird.

"But then, there was one thing I saw more than anything." Phoenix hesitated a long time before she continued. "Standing behind me—picture-me, I mean—there was a shadow. I asked my dad what it was, and he said 'It's not my place to tell you about her.'"

X raised an eyebrow. " 'Her?' So not a 'what', a 'who'."

Phoenix smiled weakly. "I said almost the exact same thing." She continued: "It was a few weeks later, I think, that I figured out what the shadow was. At first, I thought I was going crazy, y'know? Voices in my head, PTSD, hell maybe schizo. But now, I think that the shadow is—"

Her voice suddenly went silent, as another spoke through her mouth. Where Phoenix's voice was youthful, this one was mature. Slick. Clever.

"Good, God! Do you have to make everything so tragic? Let's make this a little more exciting, shall we?"

X stepped back in alarm.

There was no change as dramatic as might be expected. Phoenix's form flickered a moment, and changed in subtle ways. Her hair became a few shades deeper, her skin a shade lighter. She cast off her duster, and pulled the hair out of her red eyes with a sloppy braid.

She turned to X. "Hey~" said the shadow.

"What the hell…" X muttered.

"Mm, sorry about interrupting, but I just couldn't let the chance for an intelligent conversation slip me by!" she said, stepping closer to X. He took another step back. "I mean—oh, who am I kidding, you've been around _her_ for the past couple days, you know what I'm talking about, the constant _babble_ about hope, and light, and resolve, and friendship, and love—not that she knows anything about love, unless you count that Nara kid, and that relationship was _doomed_ from the beginning!" She grinned, and stepped toward X.

X drew a pistol and leveled it at her head. "Back off." Still smiling, she put her hands up, and stepped away. "Who are you?"

"Hm…well, _she_ calls me 'the Prisoner'. I suppose it's as good a title as anyone can deal with, at least on a temporary basis."

"Fair enough. Now the million-dollar question: What are you?"

X feared he already knew the answer.

"Hmph." The Prisoner smirked. "You two…you're more alike than you think. No messing around, get right down to business. Inconsistent. Try to express your frustrations and anger by fighting. A unique skill at keeping a grudge. Valentine's Day?" She lazily picked at a hangnail, kicking pieces of wood and cement as she walked away from X, toward the altar.

"Your childhoods sucked, of course. 'Dear old dad' got knocked off for her, and then there were those bullies! Of course, compared to _yours_—"

"What do you know about my past?" It was a genuine question. The way the Prisoner was talking…it was as though she knew much more about X than he knew about himself.

She waggled a finger at him. "Now, now, one question at a time. As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted me…"

_Crazy bitch,_ X thought.

"…compared to you, she's just a whining little priss without a sense of perspective."

"She watched her dad die," X said, "And killed her first friend. It's justified if she felt like shit after that and everything in between."

The Prisoner was silent. She turned back to X. "…It always comes back to those two. Marcus of the Darkness—the real owner of that title, like she ever earned it—and Griffin, the Bully-Hunter Alchemist."

A manic glow filled the Prisoner's eyes. She laughed lightly. "I was there, for both of them, y'know? Both times. I heard her screams, I could smell Marcus Silver's blood. Then when she finally beat Omega, when she was high off of her triumph, joyful that she had saved so many other worlds from his power, y'know what I was then?" She lowered her voice to just above a whisper.

"I was the voice that whispered to her, '_You just killed your best friend._'" A mad smile crossed her face. The Prisoner took a step toward X, uncaring of the demonic pistol trained on her forehead.

"I won't tell you what I am." She took another step. "You know _exactly_ who and what I am, we both know it's true, now say it out loud for me."

X narrowed his eyes, scowling behind his mask. _Really a crazy bitch._ _What was that Phoenix said about a voice in her head? If the Prisoner's really been babbling like this all the time...well, anybody would be in a foul mood. _X took a deep breath. _The Prisoner isn't just a shadow…she's darkness._ He looked up to meet the Prisoner's gaze.

"You're Phoenix's Darkside."


	7. Here Comes a New Challenger!

**Chapter 6: Here Comes a New Challenger!**

"You're Phoenix's Darkside."

The Prisoner threw her hands up in the air. "Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!" She put a hand to the side of her waist, and made a motion like drawing a sword. Black smoke came into being, swirling around her hand. The smoke expanded in one direction and curled around; all at once, the smoke dissipated, leaving behind a keyblade the color of night. Near the tip, a curved structure tucked close to the thin shaft. Dangling on a chain from the base of the hilt was a charm shaped like a crescent moon. Electric sparks ran along its length. On close examination, the tip, strike zone, and etchings in the blade made it resemble a bird diving in for the kill. "Think fast."

Her movements were quick, but X had not survived countless battles with slow reflexes. As the Prisoner brought her keyblade down from overhead, he used the bottom of Dusk's barrel to block the strike. "Say 'Hello~' to the Night-Hawk," the Prisoner said with a grin. She drew back and struck again, slicing low. X jumped back, raised his gun, and fired. The bullet just barely missed her, a centimeter to the right of her head before hitting the altar.

In a smooth motion, X drew Rebellion. The light of the handles played off the shining blade. For a moment, the demon skull embossed into one side of the hilt seemed to grin even wider. He wasted not a moment before charging at the Prisoner, swinging Rebellion two-handed. She brought her keyblade up, deflecting the attack, spinning around, and swiping at his side. X clumsily stepped away, his feet crossing over each other as she put a scratch in his coat. He recovered his balance as quickly as he could and stepped back.

The Prisoner charged forward, trying to prevent him from getting any leeway—her own weapon was significantly shorter than his, and every time he was allowed any kind of distance, even a foot further away, it would give her the disadvantage. Though it may have been more of a dream that reality, the laws of physics still applied. That gave X the advantages of being stronger, faster, and more experienced, so she could not afford to let him use the extra reach.

Not that the Prisoner did not have her own advantages. She could wield the Night-Hawk one-handed much more easily, giving her greater flexibility with her attacks. Then, of course, she had the element of surprise.

The next time their blades met, the Night-Hawk became consumed in electricity, and X grunted as the current ripped through him. "Spark Edge." The Prisoner pushed him back, and swung at his exposed chest. A shallow cut appeared just to the left of his sternum. His hand was twitching. He clenched his fist, and ignored the injury.

"So what if she can control gravity," said the Prisoner. "I can produce as much electricity as I like. Shocking, isn't it?" She winced at her own bad pun. "Okay, done with that." As X returned to a position to attack from, hardly a sign that he had been injured at all, she said "And I'm done with this battlefield. Let's switch it up a little, shall we?"

The Prisoner snapped her fingers, and the floor shattered beneath them. Above, everything went black, and the pieces of the floor dissolved into nothingness. After the initial surprise at the floor collapsing, X quickly gauged his bearings, and landed smoothly on the ground some thirty feet down. He stood, and looked around. "I know this place…hold on, this is where I fought Anima!"

The catacombs were exactly as he remembered; crumbling skeletons, broken links of chain, and the permeating smell of death. He lightly touched a length of chain with his foot, but it remained still. "There's something, at least." He turned to the Prisoner, and cursed at himself for not paying attention.

Just as he had turned, the Prisoner had finished charging electricity on the edge of Night-Hawk. She took the grip in both hands, and swept it down; from the blade came a spinning wheel of electrical sparks aimed directly at X. "Electric Cutter!" He sprang to the side, catching himself on all fours. The attack struck the wall directly behind where X had been standing a moment before, and an explosion went off. When the dust finally cleared, a jagged scar a foot deep had been left in the stone.

"Not bad," she said at his agility. Her keyblade vanished in a flurry of sparks, and lightning swam across her forearms. She flicked her hands down. "Electric Cutter!" Several smaller wheels of electricity were fired at X, but he only readied his sword, bringing it before him as he ran straight for the Prisoner, the attacks dispersing on touching the edge. As he came near, he swung downward with all of his strength. The Prisoner jumped back, just barely clearing it, and the ground cracked as X's massive broadsword landed. He lifted it without any effort, and went for her again.

The Prisoner raised her arm parallel to the ground, palm-out. "Overload." First there was a fizzing noise like a half-dead lightbulb, and then came a blinding flash of light.

_**BOOM!**_

Even when X could think again, dots still danced in his vision, and there was a loud, low hum in his ears. He wasted no time thinking on what the technique had done—a bolt of lightning, so bright it had flash-blinded him, super-heating the air to such a degree that it had produced thunder—his muscles tensing…waiting…

A bare touch on his arm, and he spun away. A spark, and he stepped out of the spot. In a half-minute, he could hear a screaming voice, and threw a shard of stone at the source. In two minutes, he could make out a moving shadow, grabbed her wrist as she aimed a fist at his face, and flipped her onto the ground. She rolled away, summoned her keyblade back to her, and swung across. He dodged it lazily.

X blinked a few times. The details of his vision were starting to come back. He could make out a thin line of blood dripping from the Prisoner's right ear, running down her neck. "So that technique isn't so easy to control."

"Go suck on a brick." All around them, the masonry melted away, and the Prisoner straightened.

The area became dark, the ground still a bit muddy from rain earlier in the day. It was a bit of a slope, though nothing too extreme. A gravel trail was some hundred feet off, a tree with the leaves just starting to fall at X Prodigy's back. The wind shifted, and he could faintly smell flowers. The sun had long since set.

"Did she bring up this memory, in the last few days?" said the Prisoner suddenly, sword resting over her shoulder. "I can't recall how much her thoughts drifted."

"I wouldn't remember if she did," X said carefully. "It's pretty non-descript."

"So you say, though I would have to disagree," said the Prisoner. "This place…yes, this was important in my growth, you see." She looked up to the treehouse nestled within the branches. "Where the Bully-Hunter Alchemist was possessed." She looked back to X.

"Do you know why I'm fighting you, X Prodigy? Here, in the center of the mind, where Death plays little part in the proceedings?"

"Figured it's because you're insane and bloodthirsty, not that I spent much time thinking about it," X said. The tip of his sword was a half-inch in the ground, one hand resting on the hilt.

The Prisoner smiled, bangs in her face, hiding her eyes in shadow. "Wrong. Care to guess again?"

The branches of the trees rustled in the wind.

"I'll give you a clue: it's about power."

"Isn't everything?"

She shrugged. "Unless it's about fear. Of course, I suppose it comes down to both, in this situation. My own self-interest, and her fear of me."

X rolled his eyes. "I get it already, you fancy yourself Shakespeare reborn, now can you quit your waxing on what drives people and either tell me something, keep on fighting, or let our minds leave this place?"

The Prisoner gave an expression of mock-surprise at his outburst. "Well, well, well! Very well, then, clear and straight. You're going to help me get out of this place, whether you want to or not." She swept her arms out. "Out of _here_, the prison in her subconscious, I'm going to get out with your help." She put a hand up to silence him before he could start.

"You don't even have a clue, do you? Of course, that darkness in you is so deep, you wouldn't even notice if some of it was gone." The Prisoner advanced on X, three steps forward. "It's all thanks to you. You figured out the music. You figured out just how to reach that high synchronization rate. I was formed from her darkness. Hers is vast…but it's like a puddle compared to the darkness in your heart, X Prodigy.

"In the last few months, I've been able to feed off of her negative emotions—envy, guilt, grief, hate, even irritation, and I've grown infinitely stronger. Add that to what I've skimmed off from you when the two of you synchronized…" A fierce, mad flame burned in her eyes, and for a moment she seemed to produce an ugly, black aura. "And that's why I'm fighting you here. It's decent, what I've gotten so far…but I want _all_ of it.

"You get me now? I'm going to kill you in here, and absorb your mind, heart, and soul. She won't be able to stop me taking over. And I will be free at last." She laughed.

X was…less than impressed. "That's a pretty stupid plan. I mean, it hinges on you being able to beat me, a stupid idea in of itself."

"So you say." The Prisoner charged at X, her keyblade driving at him. He spun out of the way, lightly tapping her sword as he moved, and as she kept on moving in the same direction from her momentum he swept her legs out from beneath her. She quickly jumped back up, turned, and blocked a sweeping overhead strike. A jolt went through her arms as the edges clashed together. Just as sparks began to gather in the hilt, X pulled back, and the Prisoner aimed to slash his throat with the tip of Knight-Hawk. He blocked with the flat of the blade, and took the grip with both hands. He twisted it around, and the Knight-Hawk was knocked from her hands. He stabbed forward, and put a thin cut on her face.

Defend, back up, parry, press the attack, throw a storm of sparks, recover quickly and attack again. Over some five minutes—though it felt like an eternity—X was slowly gaining ground, both pushing her away and slowly weakening her.

The Prisoner retreated a step—and felt tree bark digging into her back. X leveled the tip of Rebellion at her heart.

"Let me out of this dreamscape," said X in a low voice, "or I'll run you through."

The Prisoner threw him a dirty look as she threw her keyblade to the side, putting her hands up. Her clenched fingers shook with anger. "Fine, you win, happy now?"

He slightly loosened his grip on Rebellion.

_Sucker!_

The tree was old, the roots spread out far, and it was dry outside, several weeks since any kind of decent rainfall. The ground that X had knocked her down onto several minutes earlier was covered in small pebbles.

She threw a handful into X's face, and he instinctively flinched back, throwing one arm up to protect his eyes, and the Prisoner bolted. X swore loudly, and ran after her as quickly as he could.

As he gave chase, the trail straightened out. The gravel turned to cobblestones. Dank buildings sprang up on either side. Rain began to fall—a flash, _CRACKA-THOOM_ as lightning struck. Rainwater soaked the bottom few inches of his pants and dense layer of mud—and other stuff—collected on his shoes.

His breathing was heavy. In the dark, he had lost sight of the Prisoner. He slowed down, and stopped a moment to catch his breath, replacing Rebellion in its sheath. He glanced around. The night was still. Dead. Despite the storm, it seemed almost peaceful, in a way.

And yet, X could feel a weight gathering in the pit of his stomach. His breath did not slow down. Every muscle was tense. There was an inexplicable dread in the air.

His eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for any sign, a clue as to where the Prisoner had run off to. _Nothing…_ He raised his head. "_Hey!_" His voice echoed. _Is she gone? Am I stuck until she gets bored with me?_ "Come out of the—_HEY!_"

There, down at the next square, was an ethereal glow in the darkness, cutting through the fog like a miniature sun. X ran after the light, but it moved in response, bobbing along the road, nearly vanishing several times as it went around corners.

It took him down into the worst part of this city, the places where the wretched and wicked came out to play without fear of being interfered with. Thieves and rats and murderers. Yes, many, many murderers.

The light darted into an alley and X ran in after it. Suddenly, the light was gone. His thoughts still in chaos from the adrenalin rushing through his system, he turned all about, searching for the light, swearing up and down. "A wild goose chase, she's screwing with my head!"

The rain started to fall harder. X leaned back against a wall, trying to think. _Okay, so I can't kill myself to wake up from the dream since that's exactly what she wants…whenever I get the advantage she either changes the battlefield or pulls a surprise attack. Think, X, think…_

"But I can't for some reason, damn it!" he yelled. "I can't even think!" His sense of dread had yet to go away—quite the opposite, in fact. It was growing stronger by the minute. It was making it impossible to concentrate on coming up with a solution.

There came another flash of lightning, and a roar of thunder so loud he felt he could hear his teeth rattling. Soon after came another, brighter flash, and a crash many times louder.

Not even that thunder could drown out the screams. He jumped up at the woman's shrieks of terror, pain, alarm, panic. His heart was beating fast as her cry suddenly cut off.

"You can't help her. She was dead before she hit the ground. Not that it matters, anyways, just some prostitute." The Prisoner had guessed X's intentions perfectly. He turned, and saw her standing some twenty feet away, watching him.

"Gotta say, for all the utopic paradise Phoenix's made it out to be, Unity sure is a dump."

"At the time she left, she was still too young, too blind to see what exactly was wrong with Unity, but this isn't Unity, anyways. This isn't even from her memories." The Prisoner crossed her arms over her chest. "When an individual has amnesia, the memories aren't lost—they just fall deep into the darkness of the heart. That's where this place, an alleyway in London, year 1888, comes from."

There was a silent pause for a few moments. "This is a part of _my_ past?"

"Yep!" There was thunder. "Aren't you wondering why you were in an alleyway in London in 1882? Why you were privy to the screams of a dying prostitute?" She took a step forward. "Wouldn't you like to know what else happened that night?"

X refused to tell her what she wanted to hear. "The past is the past—it doesn't matter to me."

"Liar," she said in a sing-song tone. Sparks danced over her fingertips.

In a smooth motion, X drew a pistol and fired, the shot just barely missing as she dropped to the ground. She sprang back up, gathering electricity over her hand and slamming an open palm in X's chest. He felt a massive jolt through his body, and a sensation like a current running through his arms and legs. Just as he went to shrug it off and attack again, he felt as though his body were freezing up.

With a casual push, the Prisoner sent him to the ground. His head was swimming from the impact. "I just stunned your nervous system in such a way as to prevent your limbs and jawbone from being able to move, while keeping all sensory neurons active. Isn't that interesting?" She tilted her head. "At least, I _assume_ you can still feel some." She bent down next to X, and with the Night-Hawk's point she made a long, thin, slo-o-o-w cut on his forearm. A low groan escaped his lips. His mouth would not open; he could not scream. "Perfect!"

The Prisoner rolled X over so he would not choke in the mud. If looks could kill, the Prisoner would be as dead as a doornail. But alas, looks could not kill, and so there was nothing to prevent the Prisoner from laying his hand flat, raising her foot, and stomping down as hard as she could on his fingers. She bent down again to examine his hand. "I just crushed 8 of the fourteen phalanges in your hand, plus three metacarpals. If this were the real world, you would never wield a sword in that hand again." She grabbed a loose cobblestone, moved down his body, and smashed the rock as hard as she could into his kneecap. _CRACK!_ "Bye-bye, patella, and hello, limp for life!" _CRUNCH!_ went the other knee: "Crutches, and you would never be able to fight again."

Through clenched jaw, X hissed a few hard-to-decipher words. She leaned over him. "What was that?"

"This is nothing compared to what I'll do to you."

The Prisoner sighed, and smiled. "You'll never have that chance." She stomped on his chest, breaking nine ribs and puncturing his lung from the shrapnel. "Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" She kicked him in the side, rolling him over and into the mud again.

X struggled for breath, tried to keep from passing out. He coughed, trying again to get anything to move.

"Mm, now let's see, once I've absorbed your mind and taken control of her body, who should I take down first? Her bratty little sister? That pathetic excuse for a team? Hey, here's an idea since they're already expecting you—how about those Shinigami you're so buddy-buddy with?"

A fresh wave of anger rushed through him. "Keep away from them!"

"Ha! As if you'll be able to do anything to stop me," she said. "Give it about ten more seconds, and you'll never do anything again." She raised Night-Hawk with both hands and stood over X, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

_I opened my mouth to speak to her,_ X realized. In the depths of the mud, he felt gunmetal with his one intact hand. _Guess she doesn't know how long that stun worked for._

A moment before she could run him through, X turned himself over and fired point-blank. The Prisoner's eyes widened. She staggered back. He pulled the trigger again, and again, and again. Each time, her body flinched.

X dropped his pistol and pushed himself into a sitting position against the wall of the building. "By now you would have lost around three quarts of blood—a figure only increasing by the fact that a tearing injury like that would prove difficult to stop bleeding without external assistance. Plus blunt trauma and shock…I give you less than a minute before falling unconscious, less than five before death."

The Prisoner did not seem to hear him. She looked up, stared straight at X as though trying to see through his mask and discern his expression. "It's not over; I swear, it isn't."

Then, covered in blood and mud and rainwater, several dozen bones broken, and a mind that had never been whole, the Prisoner smiled. "See ya, X." She crumpled to the ground, and her form dissolved into specks of light.

X tried to breathe. Everything was turning black at the edges of his vision. His eyelids had seemed to become incredibly heavy. His surroundings were falling apart as the original dreamer was pulled back into the deepest darkness.

Just before it was all gone, X caught a glimpse of somebody coming around the corner. A man in a black coat that stopped just short of the ground, a sword sheathed at his hip, walking purposefully toward X. He put a hand to the hilt of his weapon, and began to draw it out.

Then there was nothing.


	8. SOS, Save OurSelves

_A/N: This chapter contains a line of the song "Turning Tables" by Adele._

**Chapter 7: S.O.S., Save Our-Selves**

_**8:21 P.M.**_

He blinked, and everything came back at once. His knees were stinging from dropping to the ground. X stood, and took a deep breath. The streetlamp above him had switched on. The air was somewhat colder.

The silence was deafening.

"So you know all of what happened in there?"

"On some level, yes."

X said nothing, then, and started walking down the road. A few minutes later: "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I don't know."

"You'll have to tell somebody eventually." He continued: "If you don't, I will." Phoenix still said nothing, and he said "If you don't _want_ to, I can."

"What?"

"Once this is over with, I can talk with a few people. Where you'd probably sit there babbling for a few minutes, I can explain it clear-cut."

"Why would you do that?"

"Hey, I'm a nice person."

"No, seriously, why?"

X shrugged. "I guess…I don't know, just because."

A sudden gust of wind kicked up. For a moment, both went on high alert, checking all around for a black coat or steel lance, but it was only natural wind.

_Xehanort,_ Phoenix thought. _Who is he?_

"Who knows. Any idea why somebody might want your Darkside?"

"Beats the heck out of me. Whatever the reason, I'd rather the Prisoner not be running around free." At the demeaning excuse for a name, a wave of hate made her shudder. Phoenix felt apprehension building, like a tightness in her chest growing stronger by the moment.

_Let's just get going already._

* * *

_**8:43 P.M., Emergency Author Fighter Barrack…**_

Phoenix had always thought it was just a way of accentuating irritation and despair in characters, but as it turned out some people could actually sweatdrop in real life. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I swear that I had it!" Ichigo said, searching his nonexistent pockets. "Couldn't have lost it, damn it…"

Yoruichi said nothing, stewing in her irritation as Ichigo tried to find the badge that would eject both souls from the shared body.

"I know I had it with me when we came, I grabbed it out of my backpack. But where is it?"

X ground his teeth. "I swear, when all of this is over, people are going to _die_. Phoenix, for getting us into this mess, Ichigo, for being an idiot, and Yoruichi, to round it all off."

"I'd like to see you try," Yoruichi quipped.

"It's just as much your fault as mine," Phoenix snapped.

"Who wouldn't get over a painkiller-fueled grudge, again?"

"Maybe if you had a touch more _self-control_—"

"Oh, and there's the impulsive kettle calling the impulsive pot impulsive—"

Ichigo whirled around and snapped at them: "The both of you, shut up already! How is this _helping_ at all? It's making it impossible it figure out what happened to the badge, and besides, fighting with your allies just weakens everyone involved!" He waited for a response. X and Phoenix considered it a moment.

X mimed zipping his mouth shut, locking it, and throwing away the key.

Ichigo gave a grunt of gratitude, then continued trying to dump out his sleeves.

Without any warning, a soft noise rang through the room: _Beep-beep-beep_.

In another few moments, there it came again, _beep-beep-beep_.

Phoenix suddenly went red as it rang again. "Ah—I'm sorry, that's my phone, I just don't get that many calls—" She fumbled for her cell phone and flipped it open. "What is it now, who's texting me now of all times—" Phoenix read the text, and paled.

X immediately took control of the situation. "The badge will have to wait. We've got an SOS from Dawn. She and Ross are pinned down at 53rd and Pine. Menos."

They were out of there before you could say 'Gillian'.

* * *

"They're coming," the Hobgoblin said in mild surprise.

"Of course they are." The old man closed his eyes. "All of them are the same: they make these claims that they gain strength through the connections they have to others, and they make even be right; however, their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness, when utilized properly."

Everything was coming together. Victory was so close, Master Xehanort could _taste_ it. But that did not mean he could afford to be lazy, far from it. Here was the most critical part of the plan. If he failed to release the darkness in that girl's heart now, it would be too late any other time. Even he had to admit that the type of magic some of those _children_ could use was extremely powerful. A strong enough sealing spell would keep that darkness away for, if not forever, a very long time.

"You are only to attack _precisely_ where I have told you. If you fail to do so…well, despite his lack of a mind, I find that Vanitas can be very _creative_."

The Hobgoblin scowled, and retrieved a pumpkin bomb. He leaped onto his Goblin glider, and flew nearly out of sight.

Xehanort smiled cruelly. "Their strength is their weakness, yes. Those allies whom they would fight besides, they would rush to rescue without even thinking about it for a moment."

He watched them rush around the corner, and he snapped his fingers. Shadows took form, demonic creatures wielding broadswords with chipped edges. Xehanort had no doubt that they would make short work of these Heartless, the Invisibles (named for their ability to turn to smoke and strike from nowhere), but the Heartless still had their uses.

The two 'Author Fighters' eliminated a Heartless with a flurry of bullets. They dropped back a moment, and took on an expression that seemed somewhat dazed. He could imagine the silent conversation: "Where are they?" "Why are there Heartless here?" "_Who sent that message_?"

The one in the black shihakusho struck down two enemies with a wave of black energy, while the dark-skinned woman said some inaudible banter. Though she carried no weapon, she obviously did not need one—her movements were so fast as to leave behind afterimages, allowing her to slip behind a Heartless and destroy it with spiritual magic before it could even react.

An Invisible turned to smoke, and the cloud swirled around the shared body of the Hollow Devil and the girl with the Keyblade. The boy held his massive sword, holding still, waiting. Behind their back, the Heartless become solid and struck. He turned just as quickly, deflecting the attack and turning it from a fatal blow to a scratch along his forearm. Without wasting a moment, he destroyed the Heartless.

He glanced at the wound on his arm, deemed it inconsequential, and lunged for a Heartless that had appeared six feet away. He brought his sword down so hard as to crack the pavement.

"There," Xehanort said calmly, and a massive explosion went off. Some abandoned hotel, 8 stories tall, some sixty years old, it was amazing that it had not collapsed earlier on its own. The explosion came from a small hand-held device that gave off a disproportionate concussive force. Thrown at a point near the base of the building, where the structure was weak, the pumpkin bomb made it crumble like a falling tree.

Bricks slid out from between each other, falling away with a _clinck_. For a moment, there was near silence as the walls started to come down. Then all hell broke loose, a long series of BOOMs that blended in a long, low note. The ground cracked from the weight, and a massive cloud of dust and smoke was lifted into the air. The light of the moon was blotted out.

* * *

X could not stop himself from coughing, while his eyes were stinging from the ash in the air. He tried to call out, but his voice broke. He pulled up the collar of his shirt to cover his mouth and nose, and took several steady breaths.

The wreck of the building had just barely missed them, but it _had_ separated them from Ichigo and Yoruichi, who had not been too far behind them. The pile groaned as the material started to settle.

"Ichigo!" X called out. "Yoruichi!"

From the other side, Ichigo could be faintly heard to shout "Hey!"

"You two alright?"

"I think my arm's broken—and Yoruichi's halfway conscious, but yeah, we got away just soon enough."

X closed his eyes, quietly muttering a thanks to the powers that be.

Phoenix hesitantly made a remark. _There was an explosion that went off that made the building fall. No heartless is smart enough to pull something like that. And we were in the shadow of the building just before it fell. Maybe somebody was trying to take all of us down while we were distracted by the heartless?_

X silently considered it. "We were in that area for a few minutes. If somebody was trying to kill us, they had all the time in the world. No, that explosion went off right after we moved away. Whoever set off that explosive was aiming for them. Or at least they were aiming to separate us."

_…Xehanort?_

"We shouldn't jump to any conclusions," X said, though he had been thinking the same thing. "First things first, can you use gravity control to get us—"

X suddenly froze. Without any other noise, he could clearly hear what he had not been sure of before: footsteps, treading lightly on the road. He turned to face its source.

It was a boy, a teenager at best, walking slowly and deliberately toward them. His entire body was covered in a red and black bodysuit with lines resembling muscles fibers across his arms, legs, and chest. He wore a silver helmet with black glass over his face.

In one hand was a cell phone with a deep blue plastic cover. He snapped it in half casually, and dropped the pieces to the ground.

In the other hand, he wielded a short sword with gears attached to the tip and to the hilt, the pieces chained down. Hanging from the base of the hilt was a token consisting of two half-gears overlapping each other. Despite its menacing appearance, there were chips in the edges of the blade, and the entire sword was in greyscale.

_A keyblade!_

"And I bet Dawn's phone," X muttered. _Definitely a trap, then._ "Ichigo, take Yoruichi and get out of here. This could get messy…"

Phoenix summoned her own keyblade, and faced the masked boy. "Who are you?"

The boy said nothing.

"Are you 'Xehanort'?"

The boy stopped, some ten yards from them ten, and made a slight shake of his head. _No._ He raised his keyblade, and slashed it through the air, unleashing a slicing crescent of energy. X moved quickly and efficiently, ducking just enough to dodge it, then ran for the boy. In one quick movement, he drew Rebellion and brought it across, but the boy braced himself and met with his own sword. As each scraped against the other, sparks flew. X stepped forward, and attacked again; again, the boy blocked it with a quick movement.

"How did you get that phone?" X struck again, swinging overhead. The boy deflected it away, and went on the offense, driving the point of his keyblade toward X's shoulder. X side-stepped it easily. "Are you deaf, or just stupid?"

"Neither," came a cold, scraping voice. It set X's nerves on edge. "Vanitas is mindless." The buildings acted like an echo chamber, making it impossible to tell where the speaker was located. "As to the first question…it is a waste of time to worry for that girl."

Red eyes flashed to green as Phoenix snapped out in wrath, "_What did you do?_"

"I did nothing. It was child's play for Vanitas to relieve her of her possessions while she was preoccupied fighting a Hollow. She likely has not even realized her phone is missing."

Phoenix clenched her fist so hard her knuckles turned white. "Bastard," she swore.

The boy, Vanitas, had been still for a moment as the speaker addressed them, but at the silence he attacked once again. Phoenix raised her own keyblade to defend herself. Vanitas' attacks came rapidly, but though she could not compare to X, her own reflexes were nothing to sneeze at. She blocked each attack rhythmically, down, up, step back, overhead.

"'Close enough to start a war, all that I have is on the floor,'" Phoenix found herself unconsciously mouthing.

Vanitas threw his hand out, and a burst of fire flew at them. X leaped to the side, rolled, came up, drew a pistol, and fired, catching Vanitas in the arm.

"Phoenix! Stop, singing!"

"I know, I know, but we would have died just then if I hadn't been!"

Vanitas stood straight again, ignoring his injury. His keyblade vanished, and he charged at Phoenix and X bare-handed.

Almost bare-handed.

Stealing Mistress of Dawn's cell phone, that had been a challenge. She was always on the alert, and strong to boot. But stealing a small object from the pocket of a flowing robe, as its owner was absorbed in the fight, that was easy.

Vanitas opened his palm, stepped just out of the way of X's sword, brought his arm back, and slammed Ichigo Kurosaki's substitute Shinigami badge into his forehead.

X would have expected it to hurt more, but it was not quite 'pain' that he felt; he was reminded of the falling sensation that occurred during sleep. There was a flash of light, and he was thrown back ten feet before hitting the ground. _That_ part of it hurt.

Slowly, shakily, he pushed himself up. When the black spots in his vision subsided, he looked up. Where he had previously been standing, he saw Vanitas and Phoenix, standing face-to-face in silence.

_Holy…no way, how did he…why did he…_ He felt the bottom edge of his mask. A full mask, now, not a half-mask. He looked up again, and clenched his fist. "I don't know how you did it-" He cracked his knuckles. "But I know you just set yourself up for a world of hurt."


	9. Deductive Reasoning

_A/N: Just a note I want to make, Kadia and DarkGuitarGoddess are the same person, it's just that between the time I started this fic and this chapter she has since changed her username and changed her keyblade from the custom Cutting Note to the in-series keyblade Oblivion. So, yeah, just had to say it to avoid bringing on confusion._

_You may be left a touch disoriented by the first half of this chapter. This, too, shall pass._

**Chapter 9: Deductive Reasoning**

**9:44 P.M.**

"Thunder!" she cried, and a bolt of lightning spontaneously formed to strike a Hollow. Kadia kept up her momentum, stringing together several bolts into a combo. She swept her keyblade around at high speed, fending off a clawed creature with four arms. She parried a blow, and knocked it backwards. "Souldude!"

"On it!" TL's right arm glowed with a rose-colored aura, and the energy turned solid as his aura arm thrashed outwards, grabbed the Hollow from where it lay dazed, and slammed it down into the ground. He grabbed it again, and threw it upwards.

Kitten Hachi-chan extended both hands toward the airborne Hollow. "Ice Bomb!" A brief wind rustled her clothes and hair, and a ball of ice flew at the Hollow. Her aim was dead-on; the projectile put a layer of ice over the creature and sent it flying even higher.

_Bang!_ came the sound of a shot being fired, a spiraling pale blue bullet moving at untraceable speeds. Hurricane's Quill smoothly blew the smoke from Dragon Breaker's muzzle, and grinned as the bullet made contact. "Hey, batter batter, hey, batter, swing!"

Kadia held her sword like a baseball bat and moved into position. As it descended to just the right place, she swung as hard as she could, slicing through the Hollow and shattering its mask. "Home run! And the crowd goes wild!" She shrieked as a wormlike creature dove for her, and she inelegantly darted to the side to avoid its five rows of sharp teeth. "How is that thing supposed to jump if it doesn't have legs? Fire!"

Despite her age, Kadia's skills were undeniable. Though she lacked the raw power her sister had, her period of actual training more than made up for it. No movement was wasted, every spell cast hit its target.  
She slashed, ducked, and seemed to dance as she avoided a cluster of needles. She charged at the worm that had tried to bite her head off. She sidestepped its initial lunge and dragged the tip of her keyblade along its back, slicing straight through the mask on the back of its neck.

In the corner of her eye she picked up movement. Kadia whirled around and prepared to stab at whatever was trying to sneak up on her. It was covered it white, but it certainly was not a Hollow.

Kadia's expression quickly turned to confusion. "..Fee? How...you're _you_ again, but how?"

Phoenix's expression, meanwhile, was nervous, her eyes focused on the tip of Kadia's keyblade less than a foot away from her chest. Her arms were up in the air in a gesture of surrender. Along her inner left forearm was a jagged cut, still soaking through her duster. "Um. Could you..."

"Huh? Oh, right." Kadia shook her head. "Here, give me your arm. I'm not very good at healing magic, but I can keep it from bleeding too much more." Phoenix extended her left arm for Kadia to examine. The younger sister carefully examined the injury by touch. Phoenix winced. Kadia ran a finger down the length of the cut, and whispered a word. A green glow touch the line, slowly mending the laceration through magic. "What happened? You...and your arm..."

"Phoenix, you're back to normal!" Kitten said cheerfully as she approached, as TL and Quill finished off the last of the Hollows in the area. She caught sight of Phoenix's arm, and paled. "Oh...that's a lot of blood..."

Phoenix brought her arm down and covered the bloodstains with her other hand. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"No, no, it's okay, don't apologize, I'm okay," Kitten said, slowly recovering from her faint spell. "So, then, where's-"

An explosion went off, courtesy of Quill, and Hollow guts dripped on the ground with a _plop_, courtesy of TL. "And there's the last of them," TL said. He slid the UFO blade back into its sheath.

"So, finally back to normal," Quill said, approaching Phoenix, Kadia, and Kitten.

"Yeah, thank god." Phoenix smiled weakly.

"I meant to ask-" Kitten cut in. "Where's X gone?"

Phoenix flinched. "Ah...I don't..."

"Went off to fight on his own, probably," TL said. He tucked his hands behind his head while he caught his breath.

"No, I...he..."

"Did he have something to do with your arm?" Four pairs of eyes went to Kitten. "I mean...when I said his name, you flinched, and you keep on covering your arm, and that cut's fresh and the way you're talking it sounds like you were just separated..." She trailed off, her gaze going to the ground.

Three remaining pairs of eyes went back to Phoenix. She hesitated for a long moment before she spoke. "I...I..." She gritted her teeth. "I said I wouldn't talk about it, he was just angry, and the separation was traumatic, and I _know_ it was my fault." She rubbed her eyes and tried to think of the words before talking again.

"There was...a guy, in a black helmet. He had the Substitute Shinigami Badge-" She babbled a quick explanation of Yoruichi Shihoin's idea "-we were put right, just like she said. And X, he just came after me!"

"_What_?"

"I don't know! He kept on criticising me, I know it was my fault this happened to us, my fault that all of this happened, and he-he did this." She put a hand to her arm. "He stormed off, he wasn't himself, I thought maybe it was just the rush of anger, that I wouldn't have to say anything..."

TL shook his head. "Hold on, hold on, back up. What's 'all of this' that happened?"

Phoenix's hands clenched and unclenched. She seemed to look off into the distance. "All of this. I couldn't let go of my grudge against X, so we wound up fighting so much. And the Hollows. That guy in the helmet...he was working with some 'Xehanort'. Xehanort is the leader of an organization that wants...they want my..." She froze in mid-sentence.

Quill was the first to turn in the direction Phoenix was looking. He pulled back the hammer on his revolver. The others quickly turned to look the same way.

Across the square, X Prodigy stood. Every weapon was sheathed, but he had stopped in mid-stride. His posture was straight, muscles in his hands tight. For a moment, the only sound was that of breathing.

Kadia stepped in front of Phoenix. "What do you want now, X?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Quill demanded to know.

"Apologize, or at least say something!" TL snapped.

X was silent for a moment more. He tilted his head to the side. "What's going on here?" There was no reply, only accusatory stares. "Hmph. Well, fine, TL, sorry. What am I apologizing for this time?"

"Are you crazy or something?" Red sparks danced over his left hand. "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, that's no excuse to try and chop somebody's arm off!"

"Thank you, Mr. Moral, I'll try to keep that in mind." X's hand dropped, and reached for a gun holster. Quill was faster.

"Hands up, X, before I do something we'll both regret," he said, aiming Dragon Breaker at X's chest. He took several steps forward.

"You wouldn't shoot me," X said matter-of-factly.

"Want to wager a lung on that?"

X reached for the holsters on his back, and had them halfway free before two people shouted out "STOP!"

Everyone froze once again. TL and Kitten looked at each other, and TL started first. "Hold on, this isn't helping anything! Why don't we all just calm down and-" He brought his arm forward like pitching a softball. A sphere of crackling white energy flew at X. The Hollow Devil threw himself to the side, but the sphere clipped his arm. He grunted in pain. When he had stopped moving, his arm was drooping, unmoving. He could feel pins and needles all the way up his arm.

"So that was the neural disruption blast?" X closed his eyes. "Some peacekeeper, resorting to an attack to keep the peace."

"Works better than a gun," TL said, shooting a glare at Quill. He prepared to fire another nerve-numbing blast, this one aiming to knock X unconscious.

"_Would you all just STOP IT!_" Kitten shrieked. Every eye went to her.

Phoenix had yet to say a word since X's arrival. Under her breath, so quiet nobody could hear her, she said "Oh?"

Kitten tried to gather her composure. "I...this...and X...her arm...this doesn't add up. I mean...

"X, I know that you're an amazing swordsman, and really strong. But your sword is massive, it's almost four feet long. And the edge of a sword can't be too fine, or it'll chip, right?" She gulped. In a slightly softer tone, she said "The cut on Phoenix's arm...it's only about three inches long, it's straight as an arrow, deep but thin, and avoided every major vein."

There was dead silence. Phoenix reached to her sister, and put a hand on her shoulder. Kadia barely noticed it.

Kitten looked to X. "You didn't attack Phoenix." It was a statement, not a question. "You couldn't have. Hardly anyone could have."

"..." X looked from Kitten standing stoically, to Quill slowly lowering his gun, to TL dispersing the energy around his fist, to Kadia gaping in disbelief, then to Phoenix.

X swore loudly.

"Not bad, Kitten. You're so good at solving riddles, why don't you try this one: two people here are wearing a mask, but only one of them is a liar." Phoenix grinned madly. "I'll give you a hint: X isn't a liar."

Phoenix tightened her grip on Kadia's shoulder, and made a quick movement forward. Kadia froze, and nearly collapsed as a knife entered her back. It withdrew, and Phoenix wrapped her arm around Kadia's neck. She raised the blood-stained butterfly knife to eye level. "Move or say anything and I'll cut off your blood supply."

Kadia was breathing heavily as life drained out of her in crimson droplets.

"Back it up, " Phoenix spat. "Or else who knows what'll happen to this pretty little face." She lightly traced Kadia's skin with the knife, smiling like a child playing with a doll.

Each of the other Authors took several steps away. Kitten, Quill, and TL had been struck dumb with shock. X's teeth were ground tight.

"Ha." Phoenix's eyes shined. "Shouldv'e looked at the eyes." Deep scarlet, like a pool of blood.

TL gasped. "No way...you can't be-"

"Took enough clues." She chuckled lightly. "You fools."

**9:02 P.M: 42 minutes earlier.**

Vanitas opened his palm, pulled his arm back, stepped forward, and slammed Ichigo Kurosaki's Substitute Shinigami Badge into her forehead. Phoenix staggered back a step as she was met by the sudden sensation of being torn in two. For a moment, everything became crystal clear, every sensation heightened to a point she could barely stand.

Just as quickly, everything went numb. Phoenix tried to summon the keyblade to attack the boy, but the Flicker of Hope would not come. She tried to create a wave of high air pressure with the manipulation of gravity, but that sixth sense was gone. Her mind intended to go diving for him to tackle him to the ground, to fight him hand-to-hand if need be, but her arms only trembled lightly.

She tried to take a step backward, to turn around and run away from the threat. Her legs were stiff.

Her jaw felt like it had been nailed shut. A small voice in the back of her head said: _please, just let me scream. I need to scream so badly, let me scream._

She looked down at herself, and saw the infinite void beneath her. Shackles bound her wrist and ankle to the intangible ground.

"_Sayonara, Warden._" There was a pause. "_Though...I suppose this makes _you_ the Prisoner, doesn't it?"_

The darkness had begun to creep up over her feet. Her wrists had begun to bleed from pulling so hard at the shackles. Brown hair hung a curtain over her features. From chest-down she could no longer see herself. Her breathing was rapid, eyes wide, skin pale.

"_**NO!"**_

Phoenix was consumed by darkness, and the Prisoner came into the light.

She rolled her shoulders. "Ah..." She searched for a hairpiece, and rolled her eyes upon finding absolutely nothing. _No wonder she didn't see that one coming-she can probably barely _see_ anything with her hair in her face._ She did her hair up in a messy braid, enough to keep it out of her face for a bit. _Now then, for my grand premiere._

She ignored Vanitas, and turned to X Prodigy. _Well, he's not a complete idiot, at least. He knows something's up. _ "What was that boast? I wasn't exactly paying attention."

"You." Every nerve was on edge, the initial burst of adrenaline following separation gone and replaced with a fierce intensity. "What did you do?"

The Prisoner looked at him innocently. "Me? I didn't do a thing! That old man provoked the two of you into synchronizing so well, then he-" She gestured vaguely in Vanitas's direction "-punched your soul out of this body. Your minds were so tightly intertwined, your mental barriers had to be torn down just to pull them apart. She couldn't put up any kind of resistance, it was like she was _asking_ me to take this body for myself!"

"You're disgusting, Prisoner."

For the first time, the mad smile left her face. Her eyes narrowed, while her mouth became a thin line. "That 'title'...it's so foul, don't you think?" She did not expect a reply, nor did she receive one. "Deprecating. Some attempt of hers to feel superior to somebody. No, I'm no longer a Prisoner, so why should I be referred to as such? I need a name, a real name. Let's see here..."

She thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "I've got it.

"Born from the shadows, I am the darkness that would blot out the light. Call me Eclipse."

* * *

**Present.**

Kadia coughed out a few words. "Let her _go_."

"Let her go? Ha!" Eclipse tightened her grip. "Let _who_ go? Your precious big sister is nearly gone. I'm destroying her memories as we speak. Soon enough, Phoenix of the Darkness will not exist." She put the tip of the butterfly knife just beneath Kadia's right eye and slowly pulled upwards. A drop of blood welled from the cut. Kadia shook madly, her eyes focused tightly on the knife, her expression one of growing horror.

"Bah! All of you... You just fell for the oldest trick in the book. I just had to get here faster than him-" She nodded in X's direction. "-slice open my arm, and play up the sob story for all it was worth. After all, if you find a lion next to a wounded gazelle, what would you assume?" She flicked the tip of her knife upwards, putting a cut three inches long up Kadia's face, just barely skipping over her eye to slash through her eyebrow.

Eclipse released her grip on Kadia, folded away her knife, and made a windmilling motion with her arm. "Gravity Slam." She brought her arm forward to release a high-pressure burst that knocked Kadia ten feet across the ground. Kadia grunted in pain as she tried to push herself up. Her arms wobbled from the strain. Somebody put a hand on her shoulder. X's grip was strong, but gentle.

"Don't-you'll hurt yourself worse."

"Now, I know what you're thinking!" Eclipse said loudly, uncaring of Kadia nearly fainting. "'She calls us fools, but the jokes on her! Now she doesn't have a hostage!' Well, what about this one." She pointed at her chest with a blood-stained hand. "You Authors-you would do anything for your _nakama_. You would sacrifice the world to save a friend. I should know-it took that girl months and months to work up the nerve to knock off the Bully-Hunter Alchemist when she knew he wasn't ever coming back. And it was the guilt of doing that that made me. You wouldn't dare-"

"_Hell's Fang._" With a single stroke, X Prodigy unleashed a wave of demonic energy that nearly scorched the Prisoner to ash, had she not made a flying leap to the side.

Eclipse was twitching slightly. "OI, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU! WEREN'T YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?"

"Certainly." X cracked his neck. "But here's another fact that brings your whole argument crashing down: you wouldn't dare do anything to that body that would potentially cripple you. Sure, you could use that knife a bit more, but you wouldn't chop off a finger or break any bones too badly. The only reason I didn't attack you earlier is because I was hoping to get any possible hostages out of your grip. So, care to try for another reason I can't attack you, Eclipse?"

Eclipse clenched her fist so hard it shook. "You...you're really pushing it, Hollow Devil."

Electricity and disruptions of the air surrounded Eclipse's hands. Just as X charged for her, she threw her hands forward. "Gravita Spark!" A shockwave erupted outwards, charged with electrical sparks that turned it into a miniature stormcloud. There was a crack of thunder that came with the superheating of the air, and the storm struck. Sparks swept along his skin, and spots along his arms and legs went numb. Dust and dirt was kicked into the air by the shifting pressure, forming a makeshift smoke screen.

"Later, suckers!" Eclipse's footsteps grew fainter as she ran, and it finally grew silent. The dust settled, and the last few sparks of electricity met the ground and dispersed.

X swore, and sheathed his blade. "I'm going after her. The rest of you-"

"Are coming with you!" TL interjected. "You think we're going to sit around while Phoenix is in trouble? No way!"

Kadia was standing shakily. "What he said. That's my sister!" She grunted with the effort, and put an arm across her stomach as she was stricken with a jolt of pain.

X gritted his teeth with irritation. Every second he was delayed, the trail grew colder. "For the love of God, think! What if she pulls another wounded gazelle gambit? 'Oh Dawn, help me, the others have gone crazy and attacked me!' 'Thank God I've found you, Loony, some Hollow made the others go after me!' You need to find the others and tell them what's going on, before even more people get hurt!"

He did not wait for an answer. X turned, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. _That crazy cowardly thing I'm gonna knock her silly!_


End file.
